New Age: World of Pokemon
by Hyperjade
Summary: Welcome to the world of humans and pokemon! The events of the world have been quiet for far too long, and one boy is going to change it all. Lost, only to be found. Strong, only to be stronger. Humans and pokemon alike will be in awe at the events to come. Legends arise, only for danger to follow. One boy, only to find more adventures than any other human could possibly handle.
1. Chapter One: Beginnings

**Hyperjade: Hello, everyone! Welcome to "New Age: World of Pokemon". This story is a co-write between Me, Hyperjade, and Pigeoncracker!**

 **Pigeoncracker: Sup peons!**

 **Jango: And the most important character here: Me! I'm here too!**

 **Hyperjade: Jango, that attitude is deplorable**

 **Pigeoncracker: Well... he's quite the ostentatious one**

 **Hyperjade: He just does what he can to get attention and often make people uncomfortable.**

 **Jango: Oi! You know I'm getting better at that!**

 **Hyperjade: not quick enough for my tastes...**

 **Pigeoncracker: This is the most amusing, hysteria inducing thing I've seen in years!**

 **Hyperjade: Yes, yes, but now we must greet the audience and explain. This is the new story Pigeoncracker and I are working together to write. It has similar characters to my other series, the absolite chronicles, but the reasons for that will be hidden for quite a while. Just know there is a reason.**

 **Jango: Now, this story is different from the others. Reason being, this world works differently from the one in the absolite chronicles, much to my own joy as you shall see later.**

 **Pigeoncracker: There might be a fez. Very, very small chance, but its a fez *trails off dreamily*.**

 **Hyperjade: Oooohhkay. Let us get started here before something crazy happens. Let the story begin!**

 **Jango: And now, what I think is a large bunch of you have been waiting for...**

* * *

 **New Age: World of Pokémon**

 **Chapter One: Beginnings**

 **Night**

"Where is my son!?"

"Ma'am, please, we are trying to find him. Just remain calm-"

"Calm!? My child is missing! You should be finding him!"

"We're trying to, Ma'am! Please, we must continue the search. You may help us if you want. Can you please tell us where you last saw your son?"

"He… He wandered out in the middle of the night. The door was unlocked and he could be anywhere! I can't-"

"Please, Mrs. Oras, help us. Where does he go when he likes to be alone?"

"… He enjoys the forest. I only let him go to the sections containing no dangerous beasts." Mrs. Oras said, nearly reduced to tears at this point.

"The Ariados can be deadly poisonous, and we can only hope he has not invaded their territory. Would he know his way in the dark?"

"No," Mrs. Oras said, breaking down into tears. The man speaking to her near the edge of the forest gave her a bright flashlight.

"If you know where he may visit first, lead the way, Mrs. Oras," he instructed.

A determined look spread across the mother's face as she pointed her flashlight at the dark forest. At night, little could be seen within the dense undergrowth. With a resolve that seemed to come from nowhere, she set off in search of her son.

Unknown forest depths

A small, four-year-old boy wandered through the dark forest. In the day, the sunlight streaming through the dense foliage would be beautiful and serene. To most people, the dark replacing it is frightening and eerie. To this child, however, it is simply more difficult to see.

Oblivious to any danger, he raced through the undergrowth as children do; laughing and running about, getting himself hopelessly lost. The boy was so deep in the forest that the calls of the others died out long, long before they reached him.

The laughter of the boy was strangely quiet compared to others his age. It was like the child was laughing only to himself, or perhaps he simply loved the quiet in the forest and wished to return the favor.

This boy had always told his mother, Calia Oras, that he only went to the parts of the forests he was allowed in. This was actually a rather devious lie, especially for a four-year-old. In fact, he was 'friends' with pretty much every deadly creature in the forest, meaning he ran away from them while laughing that four-year-old laugh while they either gave chase in anger for the intrusion or, if they had more experience with him, shook their head and continued what they were doing.

The one who he repeatedly ran into was the resident Kangaskhan. The massive being, known for its protectiveness of a child, seemed willing to treat the four-year-old like one of her own. The human boy and her child were similar sizes anyhow.

This Kangaskhan was nowhere to be found today, probably sleeping wherever she lived. The boy did not mind, however. He never minded not being able to find his 'friends' and he might not even be too worried about losing his way home. There was always a Pokémon to chase him out of the forest and into the town though they never crossed the boundary.

Many of the more intelligent Pokémon living in the forest eventually recognized the boy after they had seen him once or twice, leading to some, like the Rhydon, to simply give a verbal scolding in pokespeak.

In human terms, the rock type had been saying "I've had enough of you, boy. Run on home before you get hurt".

Running about in the forest was a sure way to get yourself lost at night. It would be a miracle if this child ever made it out of the forest again. In fact, he was in a range of forest completely unexplored by humans to this date, meaning that he was quite deep in the forest.

When this child saw a brilliant light in the distance, he immediately made his way towards it. The light felt odd, interesting, and the first thing to go through a four-year-old's mind when they see or feel something interesting is 'I should probably check that out!'

Drawing near it, he saw something floating an inch above a pedestal that was glowing a harsh white color. The pedestal in question was a short pillar with pictograms drawn all over its hexagonal sides. The polyhedron floating above it slowly rotated under its own power, a bright essence covering it seemed to shine with power; almost obscuring the object it was surrounding.

Its power was something many have never felt, save those who have made the mistake of attacking a god Pokémon. One in particular, actually. When the four-year-old came to the area surrounding this pedestal, the stone floor started humming with power; some symbols on it glowing blue and white.

The beautiful polyhedron awaited the boy as he continued to move towards the center of the strange place. It was at this time the boy, as a small child would, decided to try and pick up the treasure.

As he slowly moved his hands up and on either side of the item, the humming around him grew somewhat louder, the symbols glowing brighter. He began to bring his hands together. Slowly, like one would expect someone suspecting a trap would do. The dramatics did not last long.

When the boy finally touched the aforementioned item, the intense energy of the polyhedron flowed towards him, creating a flash of light obscuring all else. Ten seconds later, the glow intensified until it turned into a pillar of light that erupted into the sky. It was not silent, instead blaring loud and clear throughout the entire forest with a massive "THRUMM!"

The light eventually died away, revealing an empty pedestal and a platform with runes that once glowed.

This… this beacon caught the attention of our searchers. They viewed the beam from a great distance away. How the child could have gone so far so quickly was beyond imagination, but it was all they had.

"Do you think?"

"We should check that out"

"What if my son is there!?"

"What could have caused such a thing!?"

"Get over there! If we saw it then that kid definitely did! You know how four year olds are like!"

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

As the group ran directly through the forest to reachwhatever created that light, the man in charge, Davis Ampia, began to grow concerned about where they were headed. "This is unknown territory, men. Stay on guard. We do not know what Pokémon lurk in these woods."

"Yes sir!"

"Mrs. Oras," Davis asked while they ran, noticing that the mother was having difficulty, "Do you wish to rest?"

"Don't you dare suggest that!" she snapped, immediately running faster in response, "I would never stop while my child is missing!"

At her harsh words, Davis regretted the notion that the mother should stop. After all, he once thought he lost hiskid and had run about like a maniac trying to find him, worrying himself and blaming himself. When it turned out the kid was just playing a spontaneous game of hide and seek, his relief had been beyond imaginable.

So when this mother found out her child had run off into the woods, she was bound to go crazy and run about trying to find him. Davis felt bad about what he had said as it had been insensitive; however, an apology would have sounded like a weak attempt at placating the mother.

Miraculously not being attacked by hungry carnivores, they made it to the source. Many seeing just a platform of stone and an empty pedestal. Mrs. Oras approached it, much to the dismay of the others.

"That could be dangerous," Davis warned her. She made her way to the pedestal anyways and laid a single hand on it. Nothing. The symbols did not glow. The beam of light did not reappear.

"My son," she sobbed, "Where are you?"

They searched more, of course, why would they not? Eventually, a few of them came back with Zubatshounding them; thankfully, only Zubats and not Golbats and the group had to remain together. The search had gone without success.

The residents of the town tried to help each day, many braving the forest to try and find the wayward child, but after a week nothing had been found. Not even the slightest trace. The only thing keeping the mother from going out into the dangerous forest on her own were the others; who at times had to restrain her.

"Oh, my son," Mrs. Oras would sob, "My Riley… Where have you gone?"

 **Thirteen years later…**

Something blurred through the trees. Constantly changing elevations, alternating between different tree branches and the ground as it sprinted towards its destination.

It was quite a noisy being, scaring away the birds and even a few of the bigger Pokémon as it shot past. The bigger, meaner Pokémon backed off because they knew what it was.

There was no camouflage on the being, with its silver, rippling 'fur' and silver rod in hand, as well as brilliant orange hair on its head. Everyone near enough to hear it could see it, if they were not capable of either, the strong smell of sweat easily permeated their senses.

As it darted ahead, it practiced several techniques of movement. Spiraling through branches in unique acrobatic moves to thread the needle between troublesome branches, or landing in a roll to avoid most of the impact of falling from a tall tree.

Any others who saw it would not believe their eyes the first time. "These creatures aren't supposed to be able to do that!" they would say in their pokespeak. The being heard them and would just keep running.

The destination, of course, was a familiar pedestal that allowed travel to a secret place. Only one human had managed to get to before; although, completely by accident. The four-year-old boy by the name of Riley.

This being went to the small structure and put his hands on it, initiating the incredible pillar of light like it always would when travel was made possible. The first few times it had happened after the missing child incident, the people of Viridian City including the healer Yellow had tried to find the child once more; thinking that it had something to do with the boy's disappearance.

It did, but that's not the point.

The point was the child Riley had not been found. As the being used the pillar of light it had become so familiar with to return to his home, he looked around to see a Butterfree flapping its wings and staring.

Yellow's Butterfree.

The Butterfree was thinking about who the being must be, unable to see though the pillar of light. The creature watching hoped she did not report this to her human. Apparently, after watching the girl, he had noticed she could understand her Pokémon. It would be a nuisanceto be chased down by someone similar to him.

When the pillar of light vanished, so did the mystery person, his form having been impossible to distinguish. With a sense of defeat at not finding the boy, yet success in knowing what the pillar was for, the Butterfree known as Kitty flew off to find Yellow.

When the light faded in a new location, a time locked floating island otherwise unreachable by others was revealed as the red haired being stepped out. Now that he was no longer moving, it was evident that he was human. The only human to ever set foot in this place, and probably the last.

His silver clothes were actually made of threads of metal, woven into clothing to fit him. It was heavy to others, perhaps, but not to him.

And then there was the staff he wielded. The silver metal was not silver, rather it was an unknown metal capable of taking in energy and releasing it at the command of its user. Namely, the seventeen-year-old arriving at the island; his home for the past thirteen years.

This place was a sanctuary of sorts, mostly for Pokémon. He lived here, and at this point he might as well be a Pokémon. His strength was impressive. His abilities were beyond those of humans now. The boy had practically brawled with Pokémon his whole life.

"Hello, Riley!" a young Dratini called from where it waslounging in the water. It was said in pokespeak, butRiley heard it in his own language. That was an ability he had ever since coming here. Pokémon sounds were translated in his head so that they sounded human. For thirteen years, he had never heard a Pokémon speak the way they normally should.

"Hey, kid. You doing alright?" Riley asked, knowing the answer already.

Dratini still obliged, feeling great about talking to his friend. "I'm older than you, you know! I'm doing fine, thank you very much!"

Riley smiled at the fake attitude and the Dratini always smiled back. Both were good friends, despite the fact that the long lived dragon type was nearing fifty. She was still a kid by dragon standards.

They already knew what the other was thinking, having known each other for such a long time. Neither tried tomake small talk, they both knew what the other would say. They were such good friends that the conversation was not actually necessary.

Riley wandered towards an impressive tower. The tower held enough temporal energy to keep this island locked in time. The only thing that aged were the inhabitants. The blue and silver tower soared into the sky, its designs impressive and awe inspiring. The tower was the home to several steel types, psychic types, and other Pokémon. The ones that did not tended to live in the forest or the hills.

Every year, Riley was able to travel one floor higher because he had proven to his teacher that he was able to during an exam. Combat, intelligence, planning, and the like. As his teacher became more and more satisfied with his abilities, he allowed him to travel further up the building. His teacher was always on the highest floor he could go.

Having turned seventeen five days ago, Riley was willing to soon discover what challenge the old teacher had for him now; however, if he was told to wait he would wait without complaint.

The tower was a strange place. Each floor had either one, two, or three rooms. No staircases were present;instead, each floor was accessible by a strange disc that would glow and then raise and lower to different floors.

Riley was going to the floor right under the top.

"Teacher!" Riley called, walking towards the blue metal being floating near a window. This floor held a singularroom and held a place to sleep for Riley; who, unlike the rest of the Pokémon, needed a specific environment to sleep.

"HELLO, CHILD," The being said in a monotonous metal tone, turning around to reveal himself as a Metagross. "IT HAS BEEN TWO DAYS, TWELVE HOURS, AND THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES SINCE YOUR DEPARTURE TO THE HUMAN WORLD. DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?"

"Yes," Riley replied, noting that Metagross was already making calculations, reading his heartbeat and other things using his psychic powers. You could never lie to Metagross. You could never trick it or outsmart it.

"I got a bit closer to the human settlement beyond the forest, close enough to see the people themselves. One particular human had me intrigued; another who could understand her Pokémon and this one could even heal them."

"YOU SPEAK OF THE GIRL NAMED YELLOW," Metagross replied instantly, "THE GIRL WHO WAS GIFTED WITH THE AURA OF THE VIRIDIAN FOREST, THE HEALER. THERE IS SOMETHING YOU WISH TO TELL ME?"

He figured that out quick. Riley felt really bad about this, but he had to get it out. "The girl, the viridian girl, Yellow. Her Butterfree happened upon the gateway to this world. He could not see through the beam, but he saw my silhouette and I believe he knew it was a human silhouette."

"I SEE," Metagross intoned "THE VIRIDIAN GIRL IS OF LITTLE THREAT. SHE CANNOT ENTER."

"But how could she not be a threat? She's a human!"

"SHE IS A HUMAN WHO UNDERSTANDS POKEMON AND WOULD POSE NO DIRECT THREAT TO THE INHABITANTS," Metagross said, turning around for a moment and floating over to the window overlooking the island.

"THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE YOU DESIRE. I ASSUME YOU WISH TO BE CHALLENGED, RILEY ORAS?"

Metagross was the only being Riley knew who used his last name. He was unsure of its meaning. Metagross had told him it was a word that means something related to 'Dialga', whoever the heck this Dialga was.

"Yes," Riley said with a previously nonexistent manner of respect and professionalism, "I do wish to be challenged today. May I ask, what will be at the top of this tower?"

"YOU MAY NOT. TODAY YOUR CHALLENGE SHALL BE ADVANCED COMBAT, ADVANCED STEALTH AND ADVANCED SPEED." Metagross intoned impassively.

"All at once?" Riley raised his eyebrow, "What is the nature of this challenge?"

"YOU SHALL FACE THREE IN BATTLE. ONE MUST BE DEFEATED WITH BRUTE STRENGTH, ONE MUST BE DEFEATED USING STEALTH, AND ONE HAS ATTACKS THAT YOU MUST AVOID. IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?"

"Of course it is."

No lie would ever come to be uttered between student and teacher. They cannot without a valid reason and the student has lived most of his life with the teacher. Thus, neither would lie.

"YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE WHICH MUST BE DEFEATED WITH STRENGTH ALONE. YOU SHALL FACE TROPIUS." Metagross intoned, floating over to the side as a massive, long necked Pokémon soared into the window. Its wings were four large leaves and fruit dangled from its neck. The grass and flying type Tropius towered far above Riley.

"Ah, Tropius!" Riley exclaimed, recognizing his friend. The two of them had spent plenty of time talking when Riley was little. She showed him the bliss of flying during that age. No longer a boy, it was Riley's turn to show his own power.

"Hello, my friend," Tropius said, her sweet tone hardened with resolve, "I understand that I am to combat you. This pains me, but without this battle you cannot continue" Tropius didn't want to hurt the child she saw as a son, but how could the child meet Dialga if he did not prove himself? Metagross had chosen her to test the child; so she would oblige.

Riley, for his part, was surprised but understanding at the appearance of his friend. "It pains me too, Tropius. However, we both understand why this challenge has come, and so…" He lifted his quarterstaff horizontally in front of him "...I must defeat you, to the best of my ability."

Tropius bowed her head in acceptance and Riley bowed in response. Now they just waited for the word. Both knew that no matter who won, neither being would think any different of the other.

"BEGIN."

Riley immediately barreled towards Tropius who waited patiently for the boy to approach. Her first move, considering this was a physical match, was to simply try and smash him underfoot. With a cry of challenge, he leaped.

Tropius's eyes widened at the sight of him practically vanishing and landing several hits on various parts of her body. She had still expected him to be a kid. One at the base of the wings, several up the neck, and finally her head was knocked downward by titanic blow.

Riley was fast, impressively so. Being able to change directions and strike at multiple weak points was a feat no human she had ever seen would be able to accomplish. Her wings were all required for proper flight and it appeared that he had damaged one of them in the flurry of strikes

Tropius took the strikes in silence, deciding to be serious about this. She had feared hurting the child, but that was not going to happen. Force was indeed necessary.

She beat her wings at Riley, hoping to smack him away,but immediately noticed that her right forewing was not working properly. This was the side Riley dodged to. He had to aim for her head, knowing he could not do very much damage to Tropius' thick skin. Now that he had disabled her flight, all he had to do was at least enough damage for Metagross to stop the battle.

Tropius was attempting to figure out what she must do to at least slow Riley down. She was finding it hard to think while the blows rained down on her head. She was durable, but at this rate he would tire her out quick.

"Enough!" Tropius shouted, moving her head around to try and grab the fighting prodigy. The boy slammed her right in the forehead with the heavy end of his quarterstaff, using the thing to push himself right on top of Tropius' head.

Without full use of all of her wings, she could not send much of a gust at the boy who was doing his best to give her a concussion. Tropius's physical durability was why she was chosen for a fight to prove strength.

If she could get Riley to the ground, she could basically step on him if he was stunned. Inside the building, her speed was not so great. The chlorophyll ability did not activate indoors, unless the sun was directly on the field, perhaps through a window.

By whipping her neck around sporadically, Tropius dislodged Riley and sent him skidding to a stop near the wall where Metagross hovered. Riley took a stance on the ground, three points of contact on the steel surface. Tropius recognized it as an adaptation of a quadrupedal Pokémon preparing to pounce.

And he did. His charge reminded Tropius of the time she battled with a Manectric. No human should be capable of such speed, but alas, here was one defying her very words.

 _A brilliant warrior resides in that boy_ , Tropius thought proudly, _Dialga would be proud._

Riley slammed into Tropius' face with a force worthy of the dragon god of time. Unconsciousness came quicklyto the grass/flying type. The battle had been relatively quick, definitely quick enough to pass the first test.

"YOUR SECOND OPPONENT IS PORYGON Z AND RIOLU. DEFEAT WITH STEALTH." Using Psychic to move Tropius out of the way onto a platform, Metagross caused the platform with the Tropius on it to lower to some other floor. Riley knew that the two opposingPokémon would come from there come.

Riley frowned at the thought that Riolu can detect emotions. This one might be able to do so well. Metagross decided to make it at least somewhat fair by bending the metal in the ceiling and floor to make pillars and boxes and other places to hide. Riley dove behind one of them as the lift climbed up to the top.

He knew that to avoid having his emotions detected, you had to clear all emotion from your mind. He just fought a rather good friend of his, and his mind was a bit muddled. To succeed, he had to get rid of those feelings. It helped that Tropius was no longer in the same room.

He speculated that if he was even discovered once, he might fail. Failure today was not an option to Riley. And so he suppressed his emotions until he only had thoughtsabout the Pokémon searching for him.

Porygon Z was a strange Pokémon. It floated as its main form of transportation and with a disembodied head, it was capable of locking onto any target it sees, making it able to attack you constantly no matter where you are. Psybeam and tri-attack are annoying as well.

Then there was the Riolu, able to read and locate the source of emotions. If he sensed Riley and found him, Porygon Z could easily lock onto Riley and track him. If that were to happen, he would have no chance of stealth. He had one chance, and he had to take both of them down unseen.

They were smaller, so one good hit should suffice. If he could hit both at once…

Riley could not know where they were without listening at least a little. Riolu's footsteps were light and the Porygon Z's would be completely silent, it floated instead of walking. It would make an almost invisible humming sound as the processors inside it worked instead.

The only thing that told Riley the Pokémon had arrived was the lift humming its way to the top and stopping there. The room was dead silent.

Soft padding reached the ears of Riley through the silence. Because of how the two of them allowed him tolocate them so easily and because that was the point, they should be together. Should.

Riley moved slowly around the block of metal he was behind. He reminded himself that Riolu tend to have good ears as well. He had taken a few lessons on silent movement, but probably not enough to avoid making any noise.

If the Riolu heard him, he would have to move quicker than even he was capable of. Riley was only human,after all. Regardless of him being a Pokémon trained, powered up human. He was stronger, faster, and tougher than other humans. This he knew, despite never having seen other humans in combat.

This would have to end quickly. One bounce against a pillar and if he did it right, he should hit both in the head with one hit. If not, he could at least hit one and dispatch the other quickly. If he was seen at all, would Metagross tell him he failed?

Not an option.

Knowing he would only have one shot, he silently counted down from three as he focused on the path he would take.

 _One…_

 _Two…_

 _THREE!_

Riley shot forward and away from his hiding spot,acutely aware of the noise he made. The two Pokémon tasked with finding him had turned to find the source of the noise and went to look. Another noise reached the Riolu's ears from the side, prompting it to try and turn towards that, but it was far too late.

When the strike hit both targets, it knocked the enemies out in one hit; as Riley had intended. Both targets hit the metal floor. As the battle ended, the metal structures bent back into the floor by Metagross's high powered psychic attack.

"IMPRESSIVE," Metagross said, moving back to the center of the room, "AS I INFORMED YOU, YOUR NEXT TEST WILL BE THAT OF SPEED."

Metagross moved his four legs so that he was no longer in the form he was when floating and crashed into the metal ground with enough power to shake the tower itself. Riley had not a clue what the heck was going on until Metagross said, "YOU WILL AVOID MY OWN ATTACKS FOR THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES. BEGIN."

"What!?" Riley cried out, backing up. Metagross raised a claw and shot a rather slow moving swift at him. This attack was to get Riley moving, and it worked. Slow as it may be compared to a normal swift, these stars would go straight to a human.

Riley began his efforts to race around Metagross, who did what he tended to do when he was walking; move rather slowly. Riley was not able to stay directly behind Metagross because of the swift attack which follows an enemy indefinitely. The more powerful the Pokémon, the longer lasting the swift. Metagross was the strongest Pokémon Riley knew.

Furthermore, the stars did not travel in a path following the target, as most swift attacks do. Each star was individually following Riley. This meant that it would be more difficult to avoid them.

Metagross was not fast enough without floating to turn around and do things like deal with me himself. So he sent another swift after his pupil. Metagross's other attacks were slow and powerful, so slow that Riley would have no trouble dodging. Thus, Metagross had devised a plan in the span of half a second.

Riley suddenly found that the swift attacks were doing some very clever maneuvers around him, like a flock of evil birds coming to get him. Riley recognized the blue outline around them.

"Oi! Psychic swift? Really?!" Riley complained as the young boy started batting the stars away with his staff while running. The stars from swift should have dissipated on contact with the staff, but due to the nature of the staff, the stars were instead absorbed into the staff. Riley promptly discharged the energy towards Metagross in an effort to show his annoyance at the new challenge.

The small yellow beam bounced off, of course, because Metagross was a steel type and swift was a normal type. More than that, this Metagross in particular was impressively strong.

The respect Riley had for his teacher was the major reason he ever acted professionally around the Pokémon at all. If he did not respect the genderless being, he probably would be rather rash and impulsive. Not often was the teen able to act like he wanted to.

This respect made Riley even more determined to win. Impressing Metagross was not easy. If Riley managed to impress Metagross, even a tiny bit. That would be quite an achievement.

The other thing driving Riley being his infernalcuriosity. He may have been raised by Pokémon, but his entire being practically leaned towards danger. He was only human, after all.

That was, at least, the words Pokémon would use to describe the antics of a human. The dragon types that live here and had spent at least some time with humans taught Riley most of what he currently knew of the human world.

Riley would win. Metagross could never hurt him. That swift attack would never make contact; neither would the hyper beam Riley saw out of the corner of his eye.

Metagross now was controlling the hyper beam somehow. Hyper beam is a fast attack, so with it curving around Riley, it became a game of acrobatics. The swift attack meant Riley had to keep moving, and the hyper beam meant he had to leap and twirl around like a flying type using acrobatics.

The one-minute mark passed and it was already tougher than anything Riley had ever dealt with. Regardless, he promised himself. He would win, and things would work out. The fire in Riley's eyes intensified.

This was the real challenge. Tropius had been a primary test, despite her power. Riolu and Porygon Z were together another basic test. Riley had taken down tougher tests than this. Metagross was basically teasing him. What led an impassive being to do that, Riley would never know.

Things started to get unfair after two minutes when Metagross fired a second hyper beam. "Oh, for the love of-" Riley muttered before dropping down to the floor for just an instant. The hyper beams so fast and powerfulthat Metagross could not change its direction as fast as it could control the swift attack.

Because of this, when Metagross tried to turn around they struck the floor and the wall and exploded behind Riley, making a scene worthy of an action movie.

Riley had not outsmarted Metagross; rather, he had outsmarted his challenge. The ageless teacher had set up a way to escape the test and this was it. Because one hyper beam was added each minute, Riley could handle each one quickly.

In fact, Riley suspected that if Metagross wanted to, he could make the beams bounce like they were reflecting off of solid objects. He was purposely making his challenge possible. For this, Riley thanked him. Mentally, He still had a swift to deal with.

Three minutes, three hyper beams and an extra swift attack later, Riley was still untouched. The attacks stopped coming as Metagross decided enough was enough. The test was over. Riley, breathing hard, crouched in his position where he rested, his staff ready to absorb any attacks.

"...WELL DONE."

Riley looked up slowly, sweat dripping from his face. It was over. He won. Riley won the battle. "Teacher… I-I have-"

"YOU HAVE EARNED YOUR WAY, BUT ALLOW RIOLU TO HEAL YOU. HE HAS AWOKEN ANDHAS LEARNED HEAL PULSE."

"Hang on, what? Riolu was in good condition?" Riley demanded, losing his professionalism in his shock. Riolu was revealed in the dust, barely standing. He did not speak, just generated a pink rippling aura in hispalms. He went to heal Riley, wincing while he did so.

"Stop."

One word. The entire room echoed it. There was no word with more power, more force than the word it is said with absolute confidence and conviction. When someone like Riley says stop, everyone stops and waits.

This is what the Riolu did. Metagross turned to Rileyand he began to explain himself. "You would ask this Riolu to use some of his own aura to heal me when he can barely stand!?" Riley reprimanded, "That is downright ridiculous! Riolu, turn off that heal pulse. I cannot allow you to harm yourself."

Riolu seemed stunned by the outburst, but he obeyednevertheless. The pink swirling sphere flowed back into the Pokémon's paws, allowing him to gather the energy back. Riley knew that heal pulse used a lot of power and it probably wouldn't fully heal him anyways. Either way, he could continue to walk. He did not need to behealed.

"Why, Metagross? Why would you ask this Riolu to put himself in danger?" Riley asked in a quiet, forewarningvoice. Metagross said nothing in reply for a while.

This was not because of any sense of guilt. It was because he wanted Riley to handle this here and now. Tropius was not a real test. The stealth test had not been real. Even the speed and evasion test… Had been to stall and allow this Riolu to get to his paws.

Because the real test was whether Riley cared more about himself, of if he cared more about the health of the Pokémon, including other beings in general.

And Riley **passed**.

"COME WITH ME." Metagross intoned as he folded his legs in and began to float. He meandered over to the elevator, a lost looking Riley following dutifully. Riley, for his part, thought he had failed. He was fine with failing here and he had lost a little respect for the Metagross.

Metagross had calculated that Riley would get the wrong idea. He had also calculated that the young and somewhat angry boy would be very confused when they went up instead of down.

If Metagross had a proper way to do so, (not to mention emotions at all) he would have smiled. Riley was in for a show and he would finally meet Dialga. He had earned his way this far, now he gets to meet one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Riley, not knowing that Dialga even existed and feeling rather frustrated with Metagross's shenanigans with the Riolu. Speaking of the small Pokémon, Riley ruffled his ears absentmindedly. When the small being looked up into Riley's eyes, he found a strange compassion there. He had heard humans were terrible from other Pokémon, but this one seemed to be all right.

The compassion in the gesture and the look differed from the frustration the human had shown Metagross at the thought that he was asking Riolu to waste his energy healing him when he barely had the energy to stand. Riley knew exactly what he thought about that. He thought it was a waste of energy and a waste of life.

But imagine Riley's surprise as the slab began to go up instead of down. As Metagross had suspected, the child was completely flabbergasted. "What?" He started, but stopped himself short. He blankly looked at Metagross,unable to fathom what he was doing, just like the poorRiolu.

Porygon Z was still unconscious.

"What is at the top of this tower?" Riley asked his teacher.

Metagross turned to him. "YOU SHALL NOW MEET DIALGA. YOU MUST BE RESPECTFUL. TODAY YOU HAVE EARNED YOUR WAY TO THE TOP."

"Who the hell is Dialga?"

* * *

 **Hyperjade: Right then. First chapter out! This should be the start of a brilliant story in my opinion. Please remember to review this story, and if you want to receive email notifications for this story, hit that follow button!**

 **Pigeoncracker: Please point out any errors that I made. I would love to make this story better for anyone who reads it and I would like to make my own writing skills better throughout this experience.**

 **Hyperjade: Please send character bios to me specifically using the PM system to avoid spoilers in the review section and such. Please specify in the PM that it is for this story, otherwise i will assume it is for The Absolite Chronicles. Also, Any reviews in this story will be answered in this story, and reviews for the other series will stay in that series.**

 **Character bios are welcome in this story of course, and i will include the character form at the bottom of this. Please, review this story, especially the first chapter to tell us what you think of the third person view and other aspects. Thank you all, and have a pleasant day. Pigeoncracker, any passing remarks?**

 **Pigeoncracker: Nope. I'm done.**

* * *

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	2. Chapter Two: Dialga's Prophesy

**Hyperjade: Welcome back to New Age: World of Pokemon, everybody!**

 **Jango: *Shuffling papers* I can't believe you still want me to do the reviews...**

 **Hyperjade: Don't be rude. These people were kind enough to tell us what they thought. We'll just respond to them because I did not take the time to write down my responses in the first place. Okay, who's first?**

 **Jango: Mikey137**

 **Hyperjade: Ah, yes. We will, Mikey. We will. Oh, and thank you.**

 **Jango: ffchen sarah says she likes the third person view, that she likes Riley, and can't wait for new chapters.**

 **Hyperjade: Thank you very much. Oh? This paper fell off the desk. Let's see... Oh, yes, the bit about the words being stuck together. I'll get on fixing that, IdrisTheTARDIS314.**

 **Jango: Here's Phillip Harbindinger saying the story could use a pichu with a red ribbon on it's left ear.**

 **Hyperjade: that's a character bio if I've ever heard one**

 **Jango: Hey, Pigeon. WesternFail's got a review here. Here you go.**

 **Pigeoncracker: Glad you like it and I'm happy that it has been enjoyable. It certainly caught my attention**

 **Hyperjade: And then there's ZLAXE. I was glad to be able to surprise you here. I will fix that error if I haven't already. You don't have to wait for the next update anymore because it's here right now!**

 **Jango: Right. That's enough of that. Chapter start!**

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Dialga's Prophesy**

The platform rose slowly towards the top of the tower. Riley began to anticipate his meeting this 'Dialga', whoever the hell that was. If he was more reluctant to put an injured pokémon in danger, he had to be more respectable than Metagross was now, right?

The riolu was imagining what Dialga would look like, having never seen the being for himself. Probably someone important, possibly big, either a steel type or a dragon type, maybe even a flying type.

Metagross was completely patient and planning the meeting in that impressive mind of his. Riley would hopefully know to be respectful to Dialga…

Porygon Z… Well, he was still unconscious.

The last floor had a thick sheet of metal in between the top, presumably to hold something much heavier than what the other floors would hold. Riley and Riolu knew that Dialga must be heavy, or else something he had would be heavy. Metagross knew who Dialga was, of course.

When Riley reached the top of the tower, and the stone slab halted its accent; the most awe-inspiring being he had ever seen stood at the top. On top of the pedestal at the far end of the tower's peak stood a mighty pokémon. The quadruped looked to have steel and diamonds covering its body, it stood tall and strong. When the new arrivals saw it, they noted the pressure it exerted in the air. This being was seriously powerful.

To meet Dialga… Riley had not been expecting this. He could tell just by looking at it that it was a steel type and he could tell that it was definitely a dragon type. His awe-inspiring image would make most humans kneel at the sight.

Not Riley.

As they walked or floated up to Dialga, Riley was instead thinking about whether this person had a say in what they tried to do to poor Riolu. Metagross caught onto these thoughts and sent a message telepathically to Riley that it had been its idea. Riley knew that Metagross would never lie, in fact, it was almost impossible for the genderless being to lie.

Metagross worried that the test led Riley to respect his teacher less and the only reason he acted so professionally was because he respected Metagross. It was clear some of that respect had vanished in the wind, to use a typical human expression.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to put the safety of the riolu on the line to test Riley like that. Metagross now understood that he had miscalculated the severity of Riley's reaction to having a fellow living being be in danger. His calculations had been based off typical human compassion towards pokémon, not Riley's own compassion towards pokémon. A mistake.

Riley stood tall and with authority, just as Dialga did. He looked Dialga over; judging him, just as Dialga looked Riley over, doing the same. Neither believed that the being in front of them was far different than they looked like. In fact, Dialga could see the power contained within the human, realizing that the child was stronger than he appeared though nowhere close to his own league, and Riley could see it too. Instantly, Riley knew that he stood no chance against him in a battle.

Regardless, in Riley's opinion, respect had to be earned. He looked straight into Dialga's eyes and felt no fear whatsoever. He knew that this could be putting him in danger, and he knew that this pokémon was in charge, but the great Dialga was a foreign name to him. If Riley were to respect Dialga, Dialga would need to earn it.

Both knew this. At the same time, they both learned that the other needed to know just who was facing them. Dialga began, as gods tend to do, but unlike the norm, Dialga had decided to wait and learn who this human child was. This was almost a first: a god listening to a mere human.

" **I am Dialga, known as the dragon god of time. Time flows at my command. I am the son of Arceus and brother to Palkia and Giratina. All of time bows before my power. Greetings, human** ," Dialga growled. He was incapable of not growling when he speaks, most of the time, despite him usually talking to everything telepathically.

"Lord of time?" Riley thought as he looked at the dragon. He did not exactly look like the stereotypical dragon, but he certainly gave off that aura. A time controlling dragon. The other word he had used was 'god'. As in, a so-called immortal being. Dialga had graced him with who he was; why not return the favor?

"I am known as Riley. I have lived most of my life in this place; trained to battle and work with pokémon. I may be human, but from my life experience and all I have discovered about the world around me—despite that not being much—I might as well be a pokémon. My strength and stamina rival that of a pokémon in comparison to an average human. Hello, Dialga," Riley replied. The two stood there, both realizing they had similar thoughts. Similar, strong personalities.

Dialga was still evaluating the young boy in front of him. Thousands of years of life gives one experience, but it was difficult to see any human as helpful or good, considering what they do to pokémon. Certainly, there were a few trustworthy people, like those who have saved the world or those that understand pokémon perfectly. However, that was only a small amount compared to the bad people.

So many different atrocities have been spawned by the human race while for the most part; the gods were required to mind their own business. It frustrated Dialga to think of it. At this point, there was silence between the two; a total of five minutes passed as the two looked at each other. Riley blinked freely. Dialga never blinked in the first place.

Metagross decided to intervene. "THIS HUMAN HAS SURPASSED EXPECTATIONS AND SUCCEEDED IN ALL TESTS TO PROVE HIMSELF," Riley almost facepalmed as he tried to imagine whether to bring up the matter of his disdain of the nature of the test. Finally, he settled for giving it a pointed look. Both Dialga and Metagross noticed. Metagross and Riolu knew the point, but Dialga did not.

Because of this, Dialga gave Metagross his own questioning look. Metagross had calculated that this result had about a twenty-six percent chance of occurring, under a direct confrontation but above letting it go. Other possibilities were very specific actions.

Riley put his hand reassuringly on Riolu's head again and rubbed it, making the small pokémon close his eyes in contentment. Riolu was still hurt, and would need care. Riley realized this. "Riolu, it would be best if you went back to find someone that can help you heal," he said kindly. Riolu knew that he was right, but took one last look at Dialga before he left.

This had not been accounted for by Metagross. Yet again, Metagross had failed to anticipate the actions of the child because he was basing calculations on a typical human. Two errors within fifteen minutes. Metagross knew he had made a mistake.

Not deciding that Riley was worthy of seeing Dialga, but in judging his actions. Metagross should have made calculations that are more accurate. Based on this, Metagross judged that if he was failing to calculate properly based off human stereotype, he was no longer the best choice to teach the child the ways of the world. Depending on what Dialga said, the choice may be made for Metagross.

Dialga had to make his decision now. The dragon god looked over Riley and Metagross. With Riolu gone back to the lift, taking the unconscious Porygon Z with him, whatever must have happened had to be between the two in front of him. Riley clearly felt compassion for the damaged riolu.

When Dialga looked into the eyes of the human boy, he saw a fire in them. Riley kept glancing back at where the riolu had gone, wondering if he would be all right. Dialga saw that the boy was far more concerned with Riolu's health than his own was; Dialga noted that it was not the best either. He seemed tired.

Every once in a while, Dialga saw a pokémon who he deemed fit to carry out one of the many prophecies that he had received at the beginning of time. Today, impossibly enough, a human had proven himself worthy of the same.

" **Human. Once every few years, I quite by chance, meet a pokémon capable of learning one of my prophecies. Today, for the first time in my long life. You, a human, have also shown yourself to be capable of learning of one.** "

"Hang on a moment," Riley interjected, an eyebrow raised, feeling that the situation was excessively cliché. He had seen a grand total of one human movie when he sneaked into a theater and hung out on the roof of the room and watched it. There were all sorts of prophecy stuff and such. "A prophecy?"

Dialga watched the boy raise an eyebrow at the idea. To discover the meaning of it, Dialga looked into the child's memories; most legendaries could do the same if they wished. When he saw the movie scene, it made the dragon realize just how cliché that must have sounded.

" **Be patient with me, Child** ," Dialga reprimanded Riley, whose eyebrow went back down, " **This is an honor not to be taken lightly, boy. I know of every prophecy to be known in time, and today you shall hear one of them. Not only will you hear this prophecy today, it will always be within your mind when you call upon it. Depending on this prophecy, you will decide how to go through the rest of your life.** "

Riley's eyebrow went up again. "Interesting. This is quite the change of pace, I will admit. Change could always come by quickly, that was something I have been taught…" Riley suddenlyglanced at Metagross. "Did you know this would be the result today, Metagross?"

"NO."

" **No, Metagross was simply allowing you to meet me. Was he a different being, he would likely be far more surprised at this circumstance. Now listen, today you will know of one of the many prophecies guaranteed to pass in the time of this universe.** "

Riley smirked slightly. "Let's hear it, then." This prompted Metagross to try to explain to Riley that he should be more respectful, but while the two talked, Dialga was secretly amused by the human's shenanigans. No human had ever not been in awe at his appearance; instead, this human was truly unaffected by his appearance.

It was actually somewhat refreshing. On the other hand, Dialga could not go and admit that way, he had to act the way he normally would.

" **Enough!** " Dialga roared, causing Metagross to stop speaking immediately, but Riley took the time to finish his sentence. After Dialga had their attention, he looked Riley straight into the eyes, forming a mental connection to help place the prophecy in his mind while Dialga spoke.

" **In the midst of time,** "

" **The world changes forever,** "

" **As many fall under peril,** "

" **The child of time shall take weapon in hand.** "

" **When all six are lost,** "

" **And the future of one seems empty,** "

" **The child of time shall break his chains.** "

" **As the power of one is discovered,** "

" **And the call of existence can be heard,** "

" **As many travel to the source,** "

" **The child of time shall journey to the heavens.** "

" **With a new land to explore,** "

" **The guardians of legend shall meet,** "

" **And the child of time shall embrace the child of earth.** "

As Dialga finished his prophecy, Riley felt like he had been hit on the head rather roughly as the prophecy was integrated into his head. It felt terrible, causing him to clutch his head. From now on, if he thought about it, it would show up in his mind.

After breathing heavily for a while, he spoke, and not in the most respectful way. "Okay. One: You could have warned me that this was going to be painful. Two: That made no sense at all. I will admit that you did not spend time trying to rhyme like so many others." Dialga would have raised his own eyebrow if that were possible at all for the dragon and Metagross floated back a few feet.

" **Yes, I could have told you that it would hurt and that it would make, as you say, no sense, but would you have allowed me to speak of this to you if you were to know?** " Dialga asked, wanting to avoid the child finding a comeback; however, Riley certainly had one.

"Would it have mattered?" he retorted. There was no real anger, just some confusion.

Dialga had little to say to that, and had to think. Legendary gods were not supposed to have to make comebacks unless they were talking to other legendaries, who were on the same 'social level' as each other. 'Underlings' were not supposed to talk back to them, yet Dialga could not get angry at the boy. Riley was certainly a brave fellow.

 _"Hopefully that bravery will not get you killed in the face of other gods,"_ Dialga mused to himself, almost using telepathy but avoiding the action in time. Who's fault was it that legendaries are so powerful that their thoughts actually have to be held back to avoid shattering the skulls of humans?

 _"Mother's, probably…"_ Dialga thought, allowing amusement to reach his emotions.

" **Yes, Child. You could have walked away, and destiny would have called on another to fulfill this prophecy. Prophecies may not be changeable, but they can be put off until another time, another place. Had you simply walked away, it would not have been yours, but it IS yours. Congratulations are in order, I suppose, for being the first and possibly only human to carry out such a task** "

Riley smiled then, a proper smile. "What would you suggest, Dialga?" he asked the dragon. Dialga was not ready to stray from the topic of Riley just yet, but for some reason he felt the urge to try to show authority anyhow. " **Many typically call me by other names, closer to 'mighty one' or 'lord of time'. Humans, at any rate.** "

"That's nice," the boy replied in utter confidence, "Do you have a suggestion, Dialga?"

The kid had guts, Dialga was certain of that. It was interesting that the actions of this boy did not infuriate him very much at all. Metagross, for his part, thought the boy was secretly suicidal.

Dialga would have smiled at the boy's shenanigans if he were capable of smiling. " **Yes, I do have a suggestion. The best way to allow a prophecy to happen is to travel the world. There are many human customs that I suggest you learn. There are some you may find deplorable, but I believe it is time you re-joined your world and discovered reality.** "

Riley looked like he had been punched. "Live… With humans?" he stammered, as if the idea was unbelievable. To him, it was. From what 'wild' pokémon had told him of the human world, humans enslaved pokémon. He would have to join back with those pokémon considered monsters?

Yet, if he wanted to handle this prophecy—that he wanted to do if only for Dialga—he would have to follow his destiny.

Therefore, he would. He decided he would go and travel. Find out who was good and bad, free some enslaved pokémon, and anything in between. The outside world was certainly bigger than the portion he had found himself in when he left temporal tower. He had one more question for Dialga.

"Are humans really as bad as so many of the pokémon I know say?" he asked Dialga. The dragon seemed to ponder the question, as far as Riley could tell. " **There have been times when humans have shown some form of compassion or another, particularly to each other. Many of these humans are what are known as pokémon trainers; meaning they make the pokémon they keep in devices, they call 'pokeballs' to do the fighting for them. Yet, some humans have been shown to treat pokémon nicely despite being trainers. What I recommend is that if you wish to free pokémon from humans, decide whether those pokémon are unhappy beforehand.** "

Riley pondered that statement. Dialga made a good case. Riley wondered if a human or something had saved Dialga. Because his new friend had recommended it, Riley would give human 'trainers' a chance before making them release their pokémon.

 **The world changes forever** …

 _"Yes. It certainly will, with me around,"_ Riley thought before giving Dialga an informal wave of farewell and saying, "I will see you once again, Dialga. Someday."

As Riley made his way to the lift, Metagross did not move, presumably trying to calculate himself out of this unorthodox mess. Try any harder and he might damage himself in the process. None of what transpired in front of him made any logical sense.

It almost sounded like the human had become friends with Dialga! Not possible… not even remotely… Right?

Riley got to the bottom floor and greeted Riolu. The little guy was being patched up right outside the front door by a resident audino. Tropius was over to the side, fully recovered. One special thing about audinos, they can use heal pulse without any threat to themselves, and can use it constantly. They are brilliant and capable healers.

"Hello, you two," Riley greeted his friends. Riolu charged towards Riley, almost perfectly fine. His greetings were filled with worry. He started talking about how worried he was that Dialga would hurt Riley or something. When Riley told the two of them that Dialga and he had actually gotten off rather well together, both were completely disbelieving.

"No, really!" Riley said after a time of skepticism, "He actually gave me some prophecy or another, asked me to go out and travel a bit, and seemed rather nice!"

It took a while, but eventually the other two realized that Riley had never lied to them- ever. Tropius was still somewhat skeptical about the idea that Riley had openly defied Dialga about titles and lived. Eventually, Tropius had to admit that Riley tended to get along with pokémon well.

After some arranging, Riley boarded Tropius to depart to a lake where a certain dratini lives. Riolu was having some difficulties saying goodbye. "Wait! Don't go yet!" he yelled loudly as he tried to jump up and give Riley a hug goodbye. Riley had to catch his paw as Riolu fell short, and pulled him up. After a surprisingly one-sided tearful departure, the one not crying, Riley eventually pulled the very young riolu off him.

"Listen, Riolu. I cannot let you come with me. It is dangerous out there in that world," Riley explained, "I can't put you in danger for my selfish reasons. Now, I need you to go home to your mother, all right? She might be worried about you. And for goodness sake, get Audino to fix up the rest of those scratches all right?"

"Gosh, you sound like Dad," Riolu muttered before Tropius lowered herself to the ground and allowed Riolu to clamber off. With one last look towards Riley, Riolu hiked off towards the forest. Tropius swung her long neck around to look at Riley on her back.

"To where Dratini lives?" she asked simply. Riley figured that she had a new respect for him, though unnecessarily formal. "Please don't talk to me like I am different than I was before, Tropius. Yes, I would like to say goodbye to Dratini. I promise I won't damage your wing again."

She smiled at that. "Alright, Riley. Let us fly," she said, and took off with Riley hanging on. Tropius was not the fastest flier, but it was faster than walking. It took only a few minutes to land at the edge of the water, where Tropius began to drink. Riley slid off, careful to avoid damaging her fragile leafy wings and landed near the water's edge.

Dratini surfaced relatively quickly and hovered in the air just slightly. He was learning to fly already, which was neat enough for him. "Nicely done," Riley complimented, causing him to get a slightly arrogant look on his face.

"Of course!" he said, doing a backflip in the air.

"Well, I came here to say goodbye, because I am going out there again and this time, it may be a long time before I return, Dratini" Riley told his friend. He immediately lost that smile. "Oh…" he said, somewhat dejected. Riley gave his head a rub and went to assure him.

"You'll be fine, kid. I will survive… Probably. Don't worry. If it's the last thing I do you'll see me again," he promised. Dratini smiled in response, before he caught the word Riley used. His face fell.

"I'm still thirty years older than you, you know," he muttered. Riley smirked and rubbed his head again and he finally lost concentration and splashed back into the water.

After he surfaced and said his goodbyes, Riley nodded and Tropius began to take him to the location where he could reappear in the forest. Tropius stayed back. "I know your home is this place, Tropius. I would never ask you to leave it," Riley said, turning to his friend after dismounting the large flying type, "Goodbye, old friend, and thank you for everything."

"Do not say goodbye, Riley Oras," Tropius responded to Riley, "I hate goodbyes like that. They imply you will not return, and you must return. Come back when your trip is complete, please, old friend."

With a nod that sealed the deal, Riley turned. He hesitated for only a few seconds before touching the altar to activate the pillar of light to bring him to the outside world.

The pillar of light shot up far in the distance from Viridian city. None there had expected it to appear so soon, but most blew it off because there have been so many false hopes in the past. Today, only one heeded the call.

A yellow-haired girl ran through the forest. A few years had passed since she had last been involved in an important event that changed the lives of others, but in no way had she lost her touch.

Her pokémon friends ran with her and her butterfree was guiding her to the source of the light. The butterfree, Kitty, had told her that he had seen a human silhouette in the light beam. If they could learn what was causing it, they may have a clue about the night the child disappeared. This chance could not be wasted.

Nevertheless, they were going far too slowly. Yellow had to move much faster than she was. She told her dodrio, Dody, to let her mount her so that she could get there faster. The light was already beginning to die down, but they were in range to be able to see with Dody's excellent eyesight. She told Yellow what she could see; a human shaped silhouette.

They arrived at the location as the light was beginning to die down, but before the silhouette could be identified as anything, it seemed to notice them and blurred away out of the light and into the woods.

"Far too fast for a human, right?" Yellow asked her pokémon. Chuchu the pikachu expressed her uncertainty, her words and actions conveyed through Yellow's non-standard pokeballs with their clear top halves. Ratty the raticate also expressed uncertainty.

The light died away, revealing nothing but the same old place that had been the same ever since the day young Riley disappeared from the world.

"Follow that blur! Dody, we need to go!"

Riley was darting from branch to branch before he heard the pounding of feet. He glanced back while flying from one tree to another, only to find an annoying bird-like pokémon racing towards him with three heads and a yellow haired girl on its back. A captured pokémon. There was also that same butterfree flying behind, although it was much slower and losing track of the others.

This was yellow, Riley knew that much. Was it worth talking to her? Telling her what was up. No, she would want to ask about the pillar, and Riley would not answer questions.

"Let's see if that bird of yours can turn on a dime," Riley thought as he rebounded off a tree and went deeper into the forest. He would go where no other human would go. He jumped from branch to branch, occasionally changing directions, even taking a few 180's and going the opposite directions.

Apparently, the three-headed bird could turn on a dime. How annoying. Riley tried knocking a tree branch down and tried making a dust cloud to obstruct the path of the three-headed bird. Nothing slowed it down or confused the two pokémon. Riley steered clear of the butterfree hovering in the sky; he did not feel like taking a sleep powder today.

"Get lost…" Riley muttered as he jumped in an increasingly complicated zigzag pattern to try to avoid the bird and his/her rider. "Will I have to fight?" Riley thought, seeing as the persistent little buggers had the upper hand right now with that fast bird. The human seemed to be doing something with the pokémon she was on, a bright yellow light emanating from her hand. Was that how she was controlling the pokémon or something?

However old this girl was, she was a similar age to Riley. Persistent to the point of being annoying, and had a strange power coming from her hand into the bird pokémon. "Come on..." Riley muttered as he continued to avoid capture. The last thing he needed was to be captured five minutes out the gate.

Finally, he saw something he could use. A cliff that led to a lower, quite unexplored portion of the forest. He could jump that. Maybe the flightless bird would not. If it could not, the girl could not follow either.

Therefore, Riley leapt straight off of the cliff and free fell towards the forest below. Tropius had trained him to soft-land and use proper landing techniques. Yellow skidded to a stop there and watched the boy fall. He was finally moving slowly enough to be distinguished with silver clothing and red hair, and possibly about her age. Kitty soared to her and picked her up.

"We need to get down there. We'll lose a lot of ground," she said to her pokémon before withdrawing Dody temporarily. It was time to find this renegade human and find out just who he was.

Riley darted through the trees again, using his gained time to his advantage. Maybe he could find his way somewhere. He would have to make it to the city, and he was going in the wrong direction.

So far, humans have not given the best first impression. They certainly would not within the next ten minutes for Riley.

Yellow ran along with Dody. This part of the forest had no map data and no service. The map in her hands did not have this part of the forest at all, despite it been updated recently. Ariados were everywhere they walked for the first minute, and when they cleared that death trap, they found a cave entrance they almost fell in. This part of the forest was quite dangerous.

"Maybe we should fly," Yellow suggested, and Kitty nodded in agreement before picking her up again and letting yellow put Dody in her pokeball. All of the pokeballs Yellow had, had a few special features. The red portion was slightly clear and pokémon could be seen through it, and it had a place to be attached to the fishing rod that she kept. She fit her golem's ball to the long line. "Gravvy, I may need your help if we have to stop this guy."

Yellow kept a close eye on the ground while being carried by Kitty. Her fishing rod line was extended a ways towards the ground, where Gravvy could keep an even closer eye on the landscape. Mentally communicating with her pokémon, her search for Riley continued. The mystery boy held the clue, she was certain of it.

After dealing a few angry bird pokémon, the team had found nothing, and neither Chuchu nor Ratty could smell anything. These pokémon may not have the best sense of smell, but they should have been able to sense something at all. Whatever this kid was, he had extensive abilities to be able to avoid things like his scent being noticed.

So the grand questions was, who is this human and what does he have to do with the missing child? Did he have anything to do with the missing child? Yellow was determined this time to find out.

Riley bounced on a few tree trunks in an attempt to get to a noise he heard that sounded suspiciously like a pokémon crying. It was not a good sound, whatever it was. This sound was very quiet enough that it was quite a distance away. Riley was now practically flying, taking leaps above the treetops to move much faster.

Yellow saw this, seeing the apparently careless kid now above the treetops, going very, very fast. Yellow reeled Gravvy in and attached the ball to the pole itself. "We need to follow him, Kitty!" she called back to the butterfree carrying her. Her pokémon all voiced their agreement from their pokeballs. It was interesting that Yellow's pokeballs were not soundproofed in any way.

Riley came across something very strange. Two pokémon that looked like psychic types were doing something very strange to the forest, surrounding a group of humans in black attire. They were hauling what looked like metal boxes built out of bars, and in every single container, one or more pokémon were captive. Some were crying, some softly and some much louder. The ones crying loudly were silenced by a threat from the humans.

Riley's eyes narrowed at the sight. He could not hear the apparent threats, but he knew that these pokémon were very afraid. These humans were very stupid to do something like this in his presence. These pitiful humans would pay… In a minute. Right now, he looked at the pokémon making the forest change around them to allow the humans to pass.

How those pokémon thought it made any sense to help humans was difficult to comprehend, but at least Riley knew that the technique to do this was an adaptation of trick room that twisted space. He had seen porygons do something similar.

He knew the trick room would last as long as something was in the way of physical objects, like the giant cart full of pokémon cages. Riley's rage grew at the sight of the fear and sadness in the eyes and voices of the pokémon, and noticed that some were actually hurt.

These humans had hurt these pokémon. They would pay for that. They would pay dearly. Riley had to knock the psychics out to keep the others from moving and to avoid having the landscape change underneath him constantly because of trick room. He prepared for the same attack that had knocked out Riolu and Porygon Z. He would take one out at a time, starting with the one that no humans were looking at.

"Four in total… Easily done." Riley thought before launching into the fray, delivering a nasty strike to the head of one, and darted away before any of the pokémon or humans saw them. One down.

"What the hell!?" one dumbass humans asked as Riley hid away in the trees again. The other humans voiced this sentiment while racing about nearby the psychic type, but Riley was alreadyon the other side of the place. The next psychic to fall was the opposite one.

The humans, showing impressive levels of stupidity to Riley, this time cursed again and went to the newly fallen psychic type. Had it been a fight where the humans were the first targets to go, or the only target, Riley could have taken apart every single one of them in a minute.

Once a third psychic fell, the black dressed humans decided to be slightly smarter and spread out in a circle; however, it was an actual circle, and none were looking inwards. None was watching where the psychic was. Riley did not attack yet, however.

To prevent mind control, Riley put his quarterstaff in front of his head that would absorb outside psychic waves, and made direct contact with the psychic type.

 _"Why do you help these kidnapping humans? Look at the state of these pokémon. Look how they cry of fear and sorrow. Why do you help the humans?"_

The psychic type muttered some pokespeak just loud enough for Riley to hear. The other humans paid this pokémon no attention now, probably thinking that he was trying to find the aggressor, which he was, but he was answering the question first.

"In return for my help, they feed and keep me in good health. I don't have to fight in the front lines of the organization if I help them do what they want to do," the psychic was saying. Riley realized just how horrible these humans must be to do this to make other pokémon to make them dependent on humans.

The psychic pokémon caught this thought. "I know, but there is little that I can do. They have a tracker in me. If I escape, they can hunt me down. They won't even get in trouble…"

 _"I see. I am sorry for your pain, but if you keep helping them right now, these pokémon will be forced into whatever the stupid humans have planned for them. Tell me, do these pokémon have these 'trackers' in them?"_

"No," the psychic type replied "Except for the eevee. She is travelling separate from the others because of her importance. No chances are taken with her because they have many important tests to run. Please stop them. Their tests are horrible and painful, and they don't care for other's safety…"

 _"I am sorry that I cannot help you, but if you continue to help them then you won't get in trouble. What I am going to do is knock you out as I did to the others, and maybe they will not be hard on you, but I will save these others. Are you ready to be knocked unconscious?"_

"Yes," The psychic replied.

Riley launched past the human's eyesight and slammed the heavy end of his quarterstaff straight into the poor pokémon's snout. He collapsed. Riley could see the thankful smile on his face. Now that he was not moving, the other humans turned to see them.

"H-how did you… Never mind! Get him!" several of the humans shouted. Two of them had belts with red and white spheres on them, three each. The others tried to detain Riley themselves. Big mistake.

Riley first slammed his quarterstaff into the skull of the nearest human, powerful enough to knock him unconscious instantly and flinging him far away from the battle. In fact, the man's skull had cracked in the impact. Riley proceeded to whirl his staff around in his fingers as he spun, lunged, jumped and dodged around the humans.

Nothing touched him. Every punch and tackle missed as Riley showed off speed and power that humans should not have been able to accomplish. The beat up session lasted five minutes, just because there were about fourteen of them; not counting the two hanging back with the strange spheres on their belts.

Each human attacking got a staff to the face or legs and generally got the crap beaten out of them. The humans realized that they were way out of their league as Riley began to deal blows outthat would knock them unconsciousness. The two hanging back remained.

"Ekans! Teach this kid a lesson!" one yelled, hurling a ball at the ground. It bounced, opened, and a beam of light came out that formed into a pokémon. The other human did the same with one of his balls, though he called in a growlithe.

The growlithe was not happy. "I'm sorry I have to do this," he muttered. Riley's hatred for humans intensified at this. Ekans, however, was a nasty customer. "I will kill you," she hissed, slithering towards Riley.

Riley looked at Growlithe. "You don't have to fight for them, you know," he ventured, "If you have one of those trackers in you, maybe you should stick around. I might be able to find a way to remove it."

Growlithe looked surprised, while Ekans lunged. Riley absentmindedly batted the snake away with his staff. Growlithe spoke in his pokespeak, and only Riley could understand. "Why do you say that? What do you mean? I had a tracker implanted in me, but you cannot just take it out without a scientist. Moreover, why would you help me? You're another human!"

Riley looked away. "Don't remind me," he muttered, much to Growlithes surprise. This human could understand him? "Grr… Growlithe?" he asked, translating to, "You can understand me?"

"Yes, and I promise you, I will not let this human control you anymore." Riley promised. The human scowled.

"You can understand pokémon, eh? We need someone like you. Why not join team rocket? There are- ack!" he was cut short as Riley slammed his staff into the grunt's skull, cracking it and knocking him down. He picked up the balls on the man's belt.

"I will find a way to release you from these horrific things…" Riley promised to the pokémon in the balls, who did hear him but could not reply. Growlithe was stunned at the action. The remaining grunt tried to run, but Riley threw his staff like a javelin and knocked the grunt out in one strike.

After picking up those pokeballs as well, Riley put them in a bag one of them had. He looked towards Growlithe. "You have a problem with any of that?" he asked sarcastically. Growlithe found himself laughing at that. After brutally bashing the humans, he still had a sense of humor.

"Nope," was his reply.

Riley inspected one of the balls. "How do I release these pokémon? I've never seen these things before," he asked. Growlithe was surprised. This human did not know what a pokeball was? Who was he? There was another scent in the air, but Growlithe ignored it for the moment. "Only the owner can permanently release a pokémon from a pokeball, but you need to push the button on its center to send them out," he replied. It amazed Growlithe that a human could understand pokémon.

Riley pressed every button, and with bursts of light, two rattata, another ekans, and a drowzee were released. The ekans was yet another nasty customer; Riley had to bat him away towards where the other ekans was unconscious in the field. "Does anyone here have a problem with the fact that I just beat up all of the humans here?" he asked, serious this time. The ones who were awake shook their heads no.

"How many of you have trackers?"

Only the growlithe raised his paw. Riley nodded and looked at the others. "Off you go then, into the wild. I am sure you can survive until you find a place that suits you. Go on then," Riley commanded, and the pokémon replied with all sorts of thank you and other forms of gratitude. Then they all left, besides Growlithe.

"Oh!" Riley exclaimed, having realized what he forgot. He ran to the cages, where the pokémon inside were looking at him in awe. They shied away when Riley got close, however. "It's alright, it's alright. I am getting you out of here… How do I unlock these goddamn boxes?!"

"Keyhole," Growlithe muttered a ring of keys in his mouth, which Riley accepted gratefully. "You all run when I open your box, alright? Now… This key? No… This one? Also no... Keys, how do they work!? Ah, here we go…"

The first box opened. Thankfully, for Riley, the same key fit all of the locks. These humans really were stupid, weren't they? Riley certainly thought so as he released each pokémon, who thanked him and left, most giving him a hug or something in the process. Every pokémon ran away.

One of the 'team rocket' grunts were waking up. Growlithe growled a warning to Riley, who found this to be an excellent opportunity. He walked over and picked the human up with his left hand by the shirt, and it is notable that Riley's left hand is the weaker one. The human woke up in Riley's grip, the narrow end of the staff pressed against his chin.

"Urgh…" the grunt muttered, opening his eyes to see Riley with the staff against him, and began to panic.

As he began to thrash, Riley whacked him on the head. "Tell me where the eevee is that you have captive," he demanded, and the rocket grunt felt quite a bit of fear.

"Why should I tell you?!" he asked harshly, hiding his fear.

"Growlithe, please breathe some fire onto my staff," Riley requested, presenting the staff to Growlithe, who was confused at this. Regardless, he obeyed. When the fire billowed over the staff, the staff sucked in the flames and turned red. Riley put the new red staff to the grunt's face.

"Let's try that again. Tell me where the eevee is, and where they are going. Now." Riley demanded, causing the grunt to start to sweat profusely. He realized that lying to the boy would result in a lot of pain. Finally, he shakily pulled something out of his pocket. A device with two red dots on it, one in the center, one off in the distance.

"This is the tracking device… It is not keyed to a specific pokémon, so any with trackers show up. The one by us is the growlithe, the other one should be the eevee… I am not in charge, so I do not know the exact way to the hideout. Please believe me!" The grunt practically wailed.

"And would the asshole moving the eevee know where this hideout is? Do you at least know how far it is?" Riley asked, deadly calm.

"Yeah, and it should take a few days for someone carrying a large cage to get to the hideout. I do not know the exact distance! Please don't hurt me!"

"Unfortunately, I can't have you being awake to warn this asshole. I will have to knock you out. At least I won't burn you." Riley said, and dispelled the fire before slamming the heavy end of the weapon into the man's skull. He fainted.

Growlithe was in awe at the human. Just one of them could have held down many pokémon he had met, and this human just knocked out every one of them. He watched as Riley made sure that the others were out cold, and then looked around. So awed was Growlithe that he did not check what he was smelling until Riley looked about, and sensed another human.

Riley and Growlithe saw a girl with a fishing rod in hand that had a pokeball on the end. She had other pokeballs on her belt and her dodrio and butterfree were out and warily looking at Riley. The girl herself was stunned by the spectacle. Her eyes stared into Riley's own, and saw a fury that was only just dying.

"Are you going to attack me too?" Riley asked calmly. He looked at the girl, who had eventually managed to catch up to him. She blinked and then shook her head vigorously, her ponytail flying back and forth behind her. Her dodrio did so as well. Growlithe figured she was nonthreatening. Riley considered how surprised she was at the thought of attacking him. Yellow was indeed surprised at that, and her pokémon either matched that sentiment or thought he must be used to being attacked by humans or something.

Yellow sensed that thought coming from Gravvy, Dody, and Ratty, and began to think about it. Was he attacked often? He certainly had the power to fight off any enemies. "No, I'm not going to attack you," She replied.

"I have an eevee to save. I do not have time to talk to you right now. See ya!" he said, startling Yellow. It was as if he did not even want to talk to her at all!

 _"Perhaps he doesn't like other people,"_ Ratty thought to Yellow.

 _"He seems to like pokémon a lot more than humans,"_ Chuchu thought to Yellow.

Hearing her pokémon's insights, she rushed to join him where he and the growlithe were leaving. "Wait up!" she yelled as she ran up to him. As she got closer, she realized that he was an inch taller than she was, despite the recent growth spurt she had gone through. He did not turn around to acknowledge her.

"I'm coming with you. If you are off to save an eevee, I should be able to read it's thoughts and find it easier," Yellow reasoned, at which point Riley showed her the device he had taken from the person he had whacked. Well, one of them. Riley was travelling towards the red dot on the radar. "Oh," was all Yellow said.

"Let's go, if you really want to follow me," Riley said as he began to walk forward.

"I had been told that many humans cannot understand pokémon," he ventured as the two moved. He had complained a minute before about not being able to run ahead, but Yellow had replied that they might want to be quieter than that. Riley had grumpily agreed, and so they were walking. He was unwilling to talk about who he was.

"Most can't. I can hear their thoughts and read their emotions. I can understand them, as well as heal them using my power. Most humans are not like that. You could only imagine what it's like to hear a pokémon speak…"

"Actually, when they speak, I hear the words in my own language" Riley corrected, "Not the same as you, I expect because of the fact that you were born with powers from the forest and I simply have spent my entire life with pokémon, if that is the reason."

Yellow blinked, and Dody walking next to them looked at Riley "Really? You can understand us too?" he asked, excited. Riley nodded in response, and smiled at the three-headed bird. "And what is your name?" he asked pleasantly. It was exactly the opposite as how he acted towards Yellow. He certainly did think that pokémon were better than people were, it seemed.

"Dody."

"Nice to meet you, Dody".

Riley was intent mostly on the eevee he needed to save, and so that left little room for a conversation.

Yellow wanted to know more about Riley, because she had never met another human who could understand pokémon so perfectly, but she realized that Riley did not trust her as much as he did her pokémon. He had spent most if not all of his life with pokémon, so if he could understand them, that might be why.

As for the pokémon, they all were interested in who Riley was, but they knew even more that the pokémon Riley had set out to save must be the priority. After a while, Yellow realized this as well.

"We're coming, Eevee. We're coming to save you," Everyone thought, practically in unison.

* * *

 **Hyperjade: Brilliant. Thanks go to Pigeoncracker for proofreading this chapter and other chapters in this story and the absolite chronicles book two. Excellent work.**

 **Jango: Speaking of him... where'd he go?**

 **Hyperjade: Not sure. Anyways, these chapters are being completed faster than they are coming out. In fact, chapter three for both stories are being proofread, and chapter four for this story is also being proofread.**

 **Jango: *looks at the papers in front of him again* seriously, you want me to say some of these things? That's your job, dude.**

 **Hyperjade: That's what i get for trying to involve you. Well, please review, everyone. Tell us what you thought and everything. Getting reviews is great!**

 **Oh, and character bios sent to me can be specified for a certain story that you want them to be in. I sill want them via PM (Spoilers are a thing, people!) because reviews are easily viewed by the public. The character bio template will be below.**

 **Thanks everyone for reading, and have a fantastic day.**

* * *

 **Name:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:**

 **Personality:**

 **Background (this may be lengthy):**

 **Unique Aspect (optional):**

 **Other:**


	3. Chapter Three: Amber the Eevee

**Hello, everybody! Who's ready for chapter three of New Age?**

 **Jango: Eh, I'll read it in a bit. I'm busy right now.**

 **Me: Jango, what are you-... Oh. Catching up with Amber.**

 **Jango: Yeah, dumbass. You bring her about and you won't let me-**

 **Amber: Calm down, Jango. I'm pretty sure he meant nothing by that. He had better not have...**

 **Me: Uh, yeah. Stop looking at me like that. Please? Er... Review time!. First off... *Shuffles papers* ZLAXE... Yeah, I thought I could overcome the prophesy cliche by joking about it, but whatEVER. Yes, Riley is pretty tough. Normal enemies... No match for him unless they have something to give them a distinct advantage.**

 **Thank you for pointing that out, Westernfail, though I have answered that in a later chapter that is written but not proofread. Now it's a waiting game. And as for action, you get to see some more action here!**

 **Jango: Yeah yeah, that's all fine and dandy. I'm bored, so let's get to the story.**

 **Amber: *Smacks Jango* Get your act together.**

 **Jango: Why? You always-**

 **Me: Chapter start! Thanks to Pigeoncracker for proofreading!**

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Amber the Eevee**

As Riley and Yellow traveled through the forest, the two of them had found a way to cover the source of the beeping sound coming from the tracker. Riley was quite annoyed that the tracker included something that made noise.

"Stupid," Riley muttered yet again, "Tracking requires stealth, for god's sake. Why make a tracking device if you're gonna make it fucking **make noise**!?"

It seemed to Yellow that Riley was having difficulty knowing just how pitiful the human race was, even though it was mostly because he had seen little that was good about the human race. If Riley had truly spent most of his life with only pokémon, of course he would know little about the human world.

" _As first impressions go…"_ Yellow thought as she walked. Her pokémon were also thinking something similar, she could feel it. Their emotions and thoughts were clear to her.

Riley was not able to read the minds and emotions of pokémon, though he could speak to them well enough. When Dody began to converse with him again, albeit quieter, he answered freely and much more openly than he would around her.

Dody was of course talking to him about his own life, being very interested in Dialga. Yellow was having trouble believing that this boy knew Dialga **personally** , but eventually, it was clear that she was the only one with any doubt. Her pokémon were not very gullible at any rate.

"Most humans would never believe you if you told them that you knew Dialga," Yellow had informed Riley during the discussion "It would probably be better if you just said you lived in the forest."

"I suppose. Thing is, I only told you that because you theoretically can be trusted with the information. Other humans, well, they might try to find it themselves. I would have made some clever lie anyhow to preserve the secret." Riley said, before turning to look right into Yellow's eyes "I trust you can keep this secret too."

There was a threat in there, barely veiled. Yellow's pokémon did not take kindly to that whatsoever. They yowled from where they were standing or from their non-soundproofed pokeballs.

"How dare you!"

"Yellow would never betray such a secret!"

"Who do you think you are?!"

"Stuff it, human! Yellow would never give that away!"

"That's not nice!"

"Why would you say that?!"

"Guys…" Yellow murmured, causing all of her pokémon to stop cold and look at her in confusion. They were suddenly very attentive. "It's understandable that he does not trust humans at all… He lived most of his life with only pokémon, wild pokémon. Pokémon in the wild don't trust humans, and for good reason. Maybe there are exceptions, but…"

There was silence after that. Yellow did not look offended in the other's eyes. Unbeknownst to them, Yellow was indeed slightly offended, but she rarely got further than that. This time however, Yellow was hesitant to blame Riley. She did think that his distrust of other humans was justified based on his life with only pokémon.

So she was prepared to forgive. Forgive and forget. Her pokémon understood that. Riley seemed to as well, but his face was blank at the moment. Growlithe simply watched the entire scene in silence. He knew the group was getting closer to their destination. In addition, he did not have the highest opinion on humans either.

Considering a team rocket human enslaved him that is no surprise.

Finally, he spoke up. "Quiet down. We are near." This caused the others to note just how close they were to their destination. They slowed slightly as Riley whispered to the others.

"Let me handle this. Stay back, alright?" The others, knowing what he did to the other rocket grunts, backed off quickly. Riley leapt quietly into a tree branch, and took quiet leaps away.

As Riley moved through the trees, disturbingly silent, he was focused on only one thing: saving that eevee. He had never seen an eevee before. He supposed that the tracker would lead him right to it, and that the eevee would be in a cage of sorts.

His grip on his staff tightened at the thought of taking out this asshole. He found himself coming into a forest area with less trees only to find not one, not two, but **three** assholes walking along in the forest, cursing to themselves and each other as they tripped. One was carrying a cage with a brown pokémon inside. It had a cream-colored collar and tip of the tail.

The two others had full sets of six pokémon. Riley was not about to take chances. Two in one blow, it was easy enough. He had taken out two pokémon at once, why not humans?

He would leave the prick with the cage for later. He tensed, waiting for his chance, and silently leaped upwards. He was airborne for five entire seconds, his staff whirling into a position where he could brutally crack the skulls of his two targets.

Which is exactly what he did.

 **CRACK!**

The sudden noise drew the attention of the remaining rocket grunt, who saw his accomplices spontaneously drop to the ground. A boy stood there in all silver clothing, a silver, short staff held by him resting on the ground; heavy end in the dirt, small end in his hand

He looked _**murderous**_.

This boy had dropped the trainers who were supposed to protect the one carrying the cage, so the remaining grunt looked rather frightened. He had decided to give the eevee a little nap with a dose of tranquilizer because she was making too much noise.

He dropped the cage, letting it slam into the ground. This was his biggest mistake. Riley's eyes went from murderous to downright evil as he silently contemplated the pain he would put this pitiful human through. To just hurt someone like that, without remorse, and a pokémon at that…

Riley began by smacking the man with his staff, flinging him many meters away from the cage. Riley dropped down to see the pokémon and noticed it was sleeping for some reason. It had a necklace on with three points on it. One red, one blue, and one yellow. "Wake up, come on!" he hissed urgently to the sleeping fox.

"Hah, good luck with that!" the rocket grunt gasped as he lurched to his feet. He had his hand to his stomach. "I decided to give her a little nap, just to quiet her down…"

He never got to finish that sentence.

Riley, fueled by rage, gained power but lost accuracy. In this case, it was probably good on a moral standpoint because if the staff had actually hit the man's skull, he might have died. Instead, the staff hit the man in the shoulder and the follow up move slammed into his stomach. As he doubled over, Riley picked him up by the shirt and threw him.

"You would dare hurt this pokémon…" The boy growled, much to the man's astonishment. He had assumed this kid was a thief of sorts at first. Come to take the money of weaker beings. This kid was attacking because they had this pokémon in a cage?

For a moment, the rocket grunt contemplated giving the kid the pokémon and leaving it at that. However, he realized what would happen to him if the organization discovered he had lost one of Team Rocket's most important specimens. Being beaten to a pulp may be preferable to having his life truly changed forever.

Nevertheless, he could not let this kid get away. The man may have no pokémon, but pokémon are not always the solution.

Riley found himself staring down a little hole in a black object the man was holding. Said man smirked as if he had won something. "Now, no funny business, kid. I want you to turn around, walk away, and never bother me again."

Riley was very confused. "Why should I be afraid of a black piece of metal? Is that some sort of treasure for you? Good luck charms don't really work, y'know." he commented. The rocket grunt was flabbergasted.

"Haven't you seen a gun before, kid?"

"...No… I'm still not convinced you're not holding some stupid good luck charm."

"Insolent brat! Hand over the eevee or I shoot you! I can blast your skull apart with this thing! That's all you need to know," the man spat, "Now… the eevee. Give it here."

Riley was uncertain. There was no way he was handing this poor little innocent pokémon to this horrid, dangerous human. On the other hand, dying would defeat the purpose. If that man's 'gun' or whatever it was called, worked. Getting his skull blasted apart sounded like a lot of fun. **Not**.

He looked at the eevee in the cage. Whoever this girl was, and it was clearly a girl from the angle Riley was at, she was important enough. Important enough to kill for, important enough to put a tracker in her.

" _Important enough to save the life of."_ Riley thought in his head. His own life no longer mattered. He could see the effects of something on the eevee. A few scars from something sharp, a few small puncture wounds in her flank. This eevee had been subject to **something** , and this man would not be allowed to continue that.

The man saw the boy suddenly shoot forward as if fired from a cannon. He yelped in fear and took a shot, but in panic his shot went wide and he only gave the kid a tiny haircut. The gun was smacked away from him and suddenly, he was against a tree with the kid holding his staff to the man's neck.

"P-please, d-don't hurt me, please!" the man pleaded, and Riley narrowed his eyes. He delivered a blow to the head, though it was not a killing blow. He would be out for quite a while. This time, Riley's first priority was the eevee.

Then Riley burst out with a string of curses when he looked into another keyhole.

"Dammit, it's always a fucking keyhole!" Riley ground out as he tried to get the door open without a key. The others walked into the area and took in the carnage. Growlithe noted Riley cursing at a cage again.

Growlithe inspected the men who had been knocked unconscious, looking for another key ring. Yellow, however, was freaking out just a bit. "Was that a gunshot?" she asked. Riley nodded and said nothing else, tempted as he was to mutter something about good luck charms.

Growlithe found what he was looking for and trotted back and growled to get Riley's attention. A single key, which Riley inwardly thanked his lucky stars for.

Everyone else sweatdropped when he tried to put the key in the wrong way.

After the door was opened, Riley lifted the small sleeping pokémon out of her cage. She really did not look to be in good health. Yellow stepped forward, causing Riley to be somewhat apprehensive and take a step back. Her hands started glowing yellow.

"I can heal her." Yellow explained. Riley allowed her to get near the eevee and place her hands on the pokémon. The scars and wounds started to fade away over time. To be honest, Riley was rather impressed. Normally, scars tend to stick around.

"Impressive," Riley openly admitted, much to the surprise of Yellow. She had gotten a praise from the kid who hates humans. That must not be any small feat.

After a while, the eevee was in great condition. To Yellow's slight surprise, she did not wake up. Riley explained that the man had 'decided to give her a little nap', which meant tranquilizers. After Riley learned what that was, he almost walked over to the human and smacked him again.

After the others got him to calm down, they decided to relinquish the grunts of their materials—excluding clothing. Their pokeballs were confiscated, and every device they had was stripped from them. Yellow picked up the gun and before Riley could ask her what she was doing, promptly emptied it of its bullets.

"That's for evidence. Don't worry, we can't fire it anymore, but when we get these guys back to the police, we will need anything we can get. Now, I have to get some supplies out…"

Yellow took some very peculiar items from the bag she had. They were foreign to Riley, of course, but they were pieces of equipment loaned to her by the police. She quickly put several things in the plastic bags using gloves and sealed all of the devices away. "Can't be getting fingerprints on these things, at least, not many of them."

"I'll just pretend to understand what that meant," Riley replied. Yellow nodded after a few seconds. It was difficult to remember that this human had never really been under human influence.

Growlithe was looking on in fascination. For the police to trust her with those supplies, she must be trustworthy. He found himself trusting her more knowing that. Riley had no clue whatsoever what the police was, so Growlithe knew he had to keep the boy out of trouble.

"Let the pokémon out of their pokeballs," Riley ordered, still holding the eevee in his arms. She was sleeping peacefully now, true sleep, not artificial. Yellow began to comply with the grunts' pokémon, and twelve pokémon were suddenly in front of the group.

Riley stepped forward. "Listen up. If any of you want to attack us, we will defeat you. If any of you wish to be free of the enslavement of these men, you are free to leave right now. Before you make your decision, I must know how many of you have trackers within you. Those who want to leave of course."

That speech caught their attention, and they all glanced about at the three unconscious men. About ten of them cheered on the spot. After many were done cheering, they began clamoring to thank the two humans.

"Listen, this is important. How many of you have trackers?" Riley asked calmly. The pokémon settled down at that. It seemed they all wanted to leave these goons, but two were rather quiet about it. Whatever the cause of that, it made the two humans feel sad or angry.

None of them apparently had trackers in them. A raticate told them some rather interesting information that team rocket only puts trackers in rare and more powerful pokémon that they do not want to lose. Growlithe was considered rarer, and an eevee was definitely rare.

Therefore, the pokémon that were released went on their way towards the forest. Thankfully, they were all species capable of living in a forest like this. Riley looked towards Yellow who had all of her pokémon back in their pokeballs, except for Dody. Just in case they had to make a getaway for whatever reason.

Riley then looked to the eevee in his arms. She was no longer looking very fitful; in fact, she just looked like she was having a bad dream or something. There was no thrashing about, but her face was twitching and her eyes scrunched up.

Riley frowned at the sight. She was clearly having some form of bad dream. He hesitated for a moment before he lightly scratched her behind the ear. After a few minutes of this and occasionally alternating to rubbing her back and head, her frown faded away only to be replaced by what looked like a smile. She was calming down.

Riley smiled. He liked the little eevee already. She was certainly huggable too. With the eevee in his arms, Riley felt far less enclosed as he had been since coming back to this land. He could probably even speak civilly with other humans.

" _All right little girl, let's get you some help. Get rid of that tracker."_ Riley thought.

Adjusting the sleeping fox in one arm, Riley picked up his staff and put it in a makeshift loop on his pants, holding it securely. Then, Riley shifted the eevee back into both arms. Yellow and the others were all astonished at his gentleness. Growlithe stated his approval before the group began to walk away towards Viridian city.

Dody was carrying the rocket grunts, who were tied up and unable to move. There was no reasonable way that they would be able to carry the other large group of grunts as well, so they were leaving them be. In addition, because Dody was carrying such a load, they were walking.a

The three-headed bird was easily keeping watch so that the humans did not have to. Riley was busy focusing on the eevee, whom he was very intent on keeping asleep for the moment. Every now and then she would seem to get nightmares again, and Riley would do different things to help her calm down.

He found that hugging the eevee tight and keeping it quite warm seemed to calm her down a little easier. Riley grew angry all of a sudden. "What could those motherfuckers have done to this eevee to cause nightmares like this?" he growled softly, being careful not to wake the eevee.

Yellow simply shook her head and claimed that she did not know. Perhaps the eevee could tell them, but she was asleep and if Yellow, Growlithe, or any of the others woke her up needlessly, they knew Riley would be on them like a ton of bricks.

He already considered the little cutie to be a future friend. Well, more like someone in need of protecting, something that Riley was glad to provide. She just looked so **innocent** that it was impossible to let her down.

Keeping her close, Riley began watching the trees ahead. This walk would be a long one, silent too.

Five hours passed and the sun began to set. Yellow decided to set up camp alone for two reasons: The first being that her pokémon tended to be rubbish at setting up tents, one of the only things they were bad at and Riley had not a clue what a tent was anyways.

Yellow set it up and crawled inside. She waited on Riley to join her, but he looked up at the greying sky and actually sniffed the air. He scowled and looked at Growlithe, who did the same. "Rain tonight..." Growlithe whispered to Riley. Riley reluctantly got into the tent, which was rather small. Growlithe came in as well and suddenly, it was crowded. Yellow had set up a tarp where the grunts could be dry.

"Why would you give them a chance?" Riley hissed at Yellow, "They would be better off in the rain if you ask me."

"You don't really know the basics of human ethics at this point, do you? I would never leave anyone to be harmed out there. Most humans, excluding some like me, learned that pokémon are inferior to humans and can be treated badly. You learned the exact opposite and you need to cut it out. Everyone deserves to live," Yellow whispered back.

It was surprising to Riley to hear a stern sound in her voice. She was quite serious about that. Riley eventually laid down on what was apparently called a 'sleeping bag'. Yellow demonstrated what that was used for by actually slipping into it and closing her eyes. She was sharing a tent with a boy right now, but even so, she might not have changed clothes anyway.

Riley was actually somewhat uncomfortable with the concept of sharing a small sleeping enclosure with a human, and a female one at that. It was actually rather awkward. Hopefully, nothing will happen to make the situation worse.

He instead focused on the eevee still in his arms. As he slipped into his sleeping bag, he never put her down. When he made certain that she was under the covers and sleeping peacefully, he slept like that with the eevee in his arms.

Growlithe took longer to fall asleep, his sharp nose paying attention to the scents of the tied up humans who were too trussed up to go anywhere at all, not to mention also being tied to a tree, and then the fact that it was raining outside. If only Growlithe was not a fire type, he would be out there anyways watching the humans and making sure they had no tricks.

Eventually, Growlithe curled up and fell asleep, his high body temperature heating up the entire tent.

* * *

Yellow woke up first. Yawning slightly, she checked up on the others. Her pokémon were sleeping in their pokeballs, though moving about might jostle them. Riley was snoring very slightly, the eevee buried in his grasp, also asleep. Growlithe was peacefully sleeping, and the tent was very warm. The sound of very light rain reached her ears.

Yellow removed the pokeballs from her belt, cursing herself for forgetting to do so. She did it ever so carefully to avoid jostling the pokémon inside, and placed them at the edge of the tent.

After that, she just lay still and all was quiet. It was still slightly dark, which confused the girl. It was definitely getting lighter, but why did she wake so early? She sensed no pokémon emotions, except for the emotions some pokémon that were having dreams, of course. She felt no clear emotions from the eevee, and she looked like she was nightmare free.

Some light filtered through the tent after about an hour and the rain finally stopped. Growlithe woke up next to the sound of slight struggle. The men had clearly woken up, though they were trussed up enough to be incapable of making an impact on the surroundings.

Yellow wordlessly opened the tent very slowly. Growlithe exited the tent to see the rocket grunts, who were mostly hidden by the sheer number of ropes.

" _How the heck did we get these ropes anyways?"_ Growlithe thought as he stepped around the tent and into the field of view of the rockets. Their eyes widened as they recognized him. One of them did what they could to speak, and despite how quiet it was through the material in their mouths, Growlithe caught "Help us!".

Growlithe had always wanted to get back at these buggers, but he would not attack. Instead, he shook his head and grinned evilly. They tried to exclaim something like "You're one of our pokémon!"

Growlithe only shook his head once again, slightly enjoying the look of betrayal in their eyes. They had already betrayed him constantly by making him fight for them. He would rather fight for someone like Riley. Someone who cared for pokémon.

After that revelation on the part of the rockets, Growlithe began to keep watch for any other team rocket members; thankfully, none of them showed up.

Riley woke up ten minutes later. He exited the cramped tent immediately, moving slowly enough not to disturb the eevee in his arms. She was still sleeping, which was beginning to worry Riley. Maybe the humans had a way to handle this.

Yellow released Dody from her pokeball and together the two humans set the now awake rocket grunts on Dody. They could not even struggle with the amount of ropes on them, and Growlithe made the effort to use his intimidate power to force some fear into them.

"Holding a grudge against these dolts?" Riley asked Growlithe, who realized he was being somewhat immature. Regardless, he certainly wanted a little bit of revenge.

"I suppose so," Growlithe replied.

Growlithe was earning glares from his former humans, and in turn, earning a glare from Riley. When they noticed this, they winced and stopped doing anything at all. Knowing they were so easily beaten by a human of all things. He had not called on any pokémon, after all.

He could also look intimidating with a cute little eevee tucked in his arms. In most people's opinions, that takes serious skills.

The eevee in questions was sleeping away, but her dreams were starting to fade. It was interesting that she was not having nightmares for whatever reason. Not that she really understood what was happening until she woke up.

Which would happen in two hours.

"We should be able to get to Viridian city by today," Yellow ventured about two hours later, gauging Riley's reaction. Riley looked rather unsure of himself. Because of that, Yellow decided to help him along for a bit longer. "It would be best if you followed my lead, and I can travel with you until you get the hang of dealing with humans. Please don't attack anyone," she added.

Riley nodded at this. He would follow Yellow's advice and actions because he had no clue whatsoever he was supposed to do, but Yellow did.

This was when the little eevee began to wake up. At first, she had absolutely no idea what was happening. She barely remembered her dreams, but she knew that at one point, they just stopped being bad for some reason. That human had injected her with something that had knocked her out.

It was strangely warm, and she was being squeezed gently. For quite a while, the eevee believed it was another dream. No way in hell those humans would ever do something nice like give her a comfortable place to rest. They had done so many painful and invasive experiments; torture, everything, but they would never give her a bed.

It may have been the first time since she was a kit that she had been warm.

She tried not to move. Sometimes she could pretend to sleep longer than the humans wanted her to, to suspend the torture. They had done so much damage to her, and everything was painful…

Except it wasn't. There was no pain. Why? Why was there no pain? She started listening. Maybe something was different. Maybe she had been saved? That would be impossible. Nobody she knew would cross team rocket.

"I have seen the town on occasion, but the only time I really got near it is when I snuck into a movie theater," Someone spoke above the eevee. It was speaking in the human language. A human was holding her!

The other's response meant nothing to the eevee as she thought about getting away as fast as physically possible. This human had a strong grip, though he was not crushing her. His grip was warm, comforting, but the eevee would never trust him.

Therefore, she started to design a plan of escape. First, she would cause this stupid human a bit of pain, then she would run away as fast as physically possible. She could be free now that she was not in a horrid, everything-proof cage.

Not today. After counting for a few seconds, she twisted away from the human's grip and sunk her teeth into his arm. Any moment there would be a scream of pain.

Except, there wasn't. Ten seconds of absolute silence passed, not counting the slight gasp from the other human. After those ten seconds, the eevee opened one eye to peer up at the human without letting go of his arm.

And she immediately sweatdropped.

The male was holding his arm silently in place, the eevee hanging from him with her teeth. What the eevee was really noticing was the look in the kid's eye. He was staring straight into her eyes, his intense look boring into her, but they did not seem too dangerous. Regardless, the eevee was not about to stick around. It was a human, for goodness sake.

"…hello there," Riley muttered to the eevee, who got over whatever had frozen her at the sight of him and immediately released his arm and bolted. "Wait! There's a-" Riley began, but the eevee was gone.

His arm was bleeding now that the teeth were extracted, but Riley could care less. He had just let the eevee get away, and it still had its tracker. "Dammit!" he cursed, "She doesn't know about the tracker! She'll just get caught!"

As for the eevee, she ran like nothing else. Freedom! She thought she was free. Not a thought of the tracker inside of her. In fact, she never knew it existed. Running along in the forest, she had only one thought, which was getting somewhere to call a resting spot.

She had no idea why that boy had taken the time to save her, or why he had been practically unaffected by her bite. The way he looked straight through her as if he knew exactly what was going on.

She ran for a long time, about an hour at this point. She had to dodge a few of those nasty ariados, but she managed. She was nearly caught by one, but escaped just in time.

That had been why team rocket had been so interested in her, after all.

Once an hour had passed, she reached a lake. It was quite beautiful, and it looked very clean. The eevee stopped and began to drink water from the lake. She had not realized just how tired she had been. She had never consumed cleaner water than this.

Eventually, she decided she needed to rest. After she was done drinking water, she turned to find a hidden location to curl up and rest.

She did not expect to see a human sitting against the trees. Where had she come from? The eevee's sense of smell had not detected the human at all. What was strange to the eevee was that she still could not smell her. Was this an illusion?

"Hello," the human greeted. She was female, with black hair flowing down to her shoulder. She was wearing a fancy green outfit that looked like it belonged to a fighter. It was no dress, that was for certain, but it was difficult to describe. The green battle outfit was loose enough to not be inappropriate, and there were some splashes of brown color.

There was a sheath with a sword in it at one side. On the other side, was what looked like a whip made of a vine with a brown handle and a flower at the tip.

The eevee did not know what those weapons were, of course. She just knew she wanted to get away from this human. However, when she tried to run, her paws would not budge. She looked down to see the grass wrapping around her paws. It seemed to be much stronger than it should be.

"Please, stay a while," the girl said, "I simply wished to talk to you, you being in my forest, after all."

" _Her forest?"_ The eevee thought to herself, and then she suddenly got an idea that made her feel far safer for the moment. "You're a pokémon in disguise, aren't you!" The eevee exclaimed. The other laughed.

"No, I am afraid I am very much human," she replied. The eevee became slightly frightened again. However, the human girl began to explain herself. "I am not really much of a human, however, just like the boy who found you. He may not really be much like me, but those two that you left behind are pretty much the only humans you can trust. I would add myself to that list, but it is unlikely you will ever see me again."

The eevee was quite confused by this, the grass holding her down forgotten. "First off, you can understand me? Oh, and you had better explain who you are." she demanded. The human laughed again.

"I have many names and many languages. My first name is irrelevant. Nowadays, many know me as the guardian of life," the girl, apparently the guardian of life said. What a title. Also a confusing one.

"Sorry, what?" The eevee asked, not really getting what that meant. The 'guardian of life' chuckled once more.

"The elemental power of life is my own. It is difficult to explain. The power of life is my own force. This forest, its inhabitants, you. All of your life energy is tied to my own. That is all you need to know about me, but I must ask you to go back to that human. What I know is that that human is the safest person you could possibly be with. You need to join with him. Together, you have the power to save the world."

The eevee just stared at her. That human… Was the safest she could be with? A **human**? No way, that wasn't possible, right? The guardian of life seemed to read her thoughts.

"The boy, Riley, one of those with bonds to a legendary, and one with a connection to pokémon. And the girl, Yellow, with the powers of the viridian forest, one of **my** forests. The powers to heal and connect, the power I have granted to only a few as the guardian of life, and only some of those affiliated with the viridian forest. I give other abilities to the chosen ones of other forests. Yellow has healed you so thoroughly that even your scars no longer exist," The guardian of life rambled on as the eevee checked herself. All of her scars from various experiments were completely gone.

" _The girl from that pair healed me? Why would she do that?"_ The eevee thought to herself. She thought it was weird how the girl could heal her, but the boy was apparently the one she should stick around? Why not stick around Yellow?

"If you get lost on your way back, the forest will help you get to them. I can request its help at any point of course. The trees will also protect you while you are in this particular forest from any team rocket members at any time. I can guarantee it, Amber," The guardian of life said.

The eevee, named Amber, was surprised. "How can you know my name?!" She demanded. She had never told a single soul, never even uttering it in front of the team rocket goons. The guardian of life seemed to glow green as she began to reply.

"You will find that the two you must return to will know your name as well. As for why… Well, I have been instructed not to tell you that. I must leave you now. Go; find the two humans who saved you. It is unlikely you will ever see me again, but you can always call on me if you truly need assistance. I will not appear, but I may be able to send something if the others permit me to do so. Now… Go." The guardian of life instructed. Her green glow intensified, causing Amber to look away. When she looked back, the guardian of life was gone.

The grass around her paws loosened, but Amber barely noticed. Who the heck was that human, and why did she have so much power? Humans replied on technology and pokémon to be powerful. That was the experience that Amber usually had.

Realizing that this guardian, whoever she was, had requested her to go back to the others, she turned her thoughts to that. Amber was hesitating because she thought that humans could not be trusted still. Why was this guardian any different? She said herself she was human…

Regardless, Amber realized that these humans might just be worth a shot, if she could get a new life. It was not as if she remembered clearly how to survive on her own.

Therefore, she decided to run back into the forest.

It was different, the forest. It seemed to guide her. The trees seemed thicker where Amber was not supposed to go. That a human could have power to do this should have been impossible.

Back with the others, Yellow was sensing a change in the forest. "The forest is restless…" She murmured just loud enough for the others to hear, "I have never seen it like this…"

Riley began looking around as well. "It seems to be getting thicker. We might have to adjust the way Dody is carrying the humans," he noted. The rocket grunts did not like the way this boy called them humans as if he wasn't one. That worried them.

"What could change the forest like this?" Yellow asked, now worried. Her powers came to certain people with the power of the viridian forest, but she had never seen the forest itself move at all. This change might not have been a friendly gesture… Yellow could only hope that it was either helping them or just not hurting them.

Five minutes later, Riley noticed something else. "The trees are getting too thick in this direction. Unnaturally thick. It's turning us around." he said, now worried himself. This was not supposed to happen. The forest itself was not supposed to be able to move.

"They are normal trees, unlike the time I got stuck in a forest of exeggutor…" Yellow muttered, looking up into the branches. There were no fruit in the trees, and if there were, none of them had faces on them.

"Never heard of them. I only know the pokémon I lived with," Riley answered, not looking around. Chuchu popped out of her pokeball to leap into the branches and keep a lookout for anything that moved.

"I have not seen most of your pokémon before actually. What species are they?" Riley asked unexpectedly. Perhaps it was an attempt to get more involved in what was going on, or maybe he was just getting warmer towards humans slowly.

"Dody is a dodrio, Chuchu there is a pikachu, Gravvy is a golem, Kitty is a butterfree, Ratty is a raticate, and Omny is an Omastar." Yellow explained to the red haired boy, who nodded to each in turn as Yellow released them. They were an interesting group, with many different types.

"What is the forest leading us to then?" Riley asked, "That eevee must be found so that she can be kept safe. Those rockets will find her unless we can remove her tracker". Yellow nodded at this, while an observer wondered what a tracker was.

This observer, Amber, specifically wanted to know what this tracker had to do with team rocket. Whatever it was, it would let team rocket find her again. It meant that getting help was definitely something she needed to do, and according to this guardian of life, that male human had to be the one to help her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a certain pikachu who noticed and leaped at her. Amber found herself restrained by the pikachu, unable to move. This one was strong.

Amber struggled a bit, but the others noticed the commotion.

Riley whipped around, staff at the ready. He saw the eevee. "Ah, hello there. I don't believe we were properly introduced when you woke up," Riley greeted, lowering his weapon, "Given that you decided to bite me instead of introducing yourself. I can look past that, though!" Riley smiled at the end of that. The others had been slightly worried when he mentioned the bite, but he was still grinning at the little eevee.

Said eevee was quite surprised at this. She had almost attempted to knock the little mouse away; however, she was stunned by his smile. Chuchu loosened her grip, and Amber shook her off and dropped down. Slowly, still not trusting the humans, she walked up to the male.

"And who are you?" She asked boldly. Riley smirked and prepared an introduction. "My name is Riley. I have lived with pokémon all my life, and a skilled fighter. Yes, I understand you. Yes, I know how to fight, and Yes, I might as well be a pokémon for all I know about the human world," he said.

Amber raised an eyebrow. "That… Was the lamest intro… Ever. Of all time," she deadpanned.

She may as well have struck him with lightning. "Wha...?" He stammered. The others noticed the break in his normal cool. Amber certainly did not think he was as cool as he acted.

As for everyone else, they burst into laughter as a group. Riley looked about, realizing he had been bested in one verbal move. Amber went on to explain what happened.

"After drinking water, some weird human chick told me to go back along with some speech about being the 'guardian of life' or whatever. Talking about how the forest would protect me while I was going back to you guys. Told me to stick around you because it was safest with you or something." Amber said, giving a basic rundown of the situation. To her surprise, the girl also nodded along with Riley. They both understood her.

"It's a good thing this guardian of life told you to come back. The thing is, those rockets put something in you that lets them detect you with one of these," Riley stated, pulling out the device that still had the blinking lights showing where any pokémon with a tracker in them were at any time.

"That tracker would lead the rockets right back to you," Yellow elaborated, and Amber was quite worried about that, though she did not show it. Riley was ready with something to make her feel better.

"It is possible the humans might have a way to remove the tracker; yours and Growlithes," he said, placating the eevee.

After some more talking, the chat turning into actual banter between Riley and Amber, Amber had one more thing to be cleared up. "That crazy chick told me you should know my names or something. Soooo…"

Riley walked forward. He knelt in front of the eevee, still much taller when crouched. Amber wanted to recoil, but she forced herself not to. Riley's mouth twitched for a moment.

Riley was thinking about a name. As he looked into the eevee's eyes, it was really weird. Something just popped into his head as he looked at her, as if it was always hers. "...Your name… Is Amber." Riley stated, sure of it. Amber recoiled in response.

"She was right, you **do** know," Amber said, somewhat impressed. Riley just rubbed the back of his head, slightly embarrassed.

"I didn't. It just sort of… popped into my head. I really got it right?" he asked incredulously.

Amber nodded. Growlithe stepped forward. "You must come with us, at least to get rid of that tracker. If they don't have a way to get rid of it, Riley is in fact the best to be around. He fights better than any pokémon I know," he said. Amber was skeptical.

"Really? This idiot is a fighter?" Amber asked. Again, she might as well have struck the boy with lightning. He faced away, his face a mask. "I guess everything I've done is just not good enough, huh?" he asked. Everyone else sweatdropped besides Amber. For her, everything was going according to plan.

After that bit, the group began traveling. Amber, deciding she really could trust this human, jumped to his shoulder and sat there; letting **him** carry her weight. He still seemed down about the insult, though.

Yellow walked along with Riley, several of her pokémon back in their balls besides Dody, who was carrying the grunts, and Chuchu, who was keeping an eye on the treetops. It seemed unnecessary however, because the forest seemed to be guiding them. The trees were dense on both sides, and sparse right in front of them. There seemed to be nothing natural about it, even with Amber having told them about the guardian of life saying something about the forest helping them.

"To be able to control the forest… She must be powerful, but no human has that kind of power, right?" Yellow questioned. Amber considered telling her about that comment the guardian of life had made. That one about having given those healing powers to some affiliated with the viridian forest. It seemed something that Amber should keep hidden to avoid, well, making Yellow doubt herself.

Riley, though. Amber was totally fine with messing with him. He could take a little ribbing, despite his reaction. He was recovering from the insult already. This would be fun.

Growlithe eventually smelled other humans. "Humans nearby…" he muttered. Riley tensed.

Yellow immediately noticed. "Calm down, Riley. We should just be about to exit the forest. Now… Follow my lead. Considering you are the kid that disappeared, if that got out, people would swarm you. I gather you don't want that to happen," she said as calmly as possible.

Amber felt the boy stiffen up at the mention of being swarmed by humans. Having lived with pokémon all this time, he probably had the same assumption she did about humans. He had said it himself while they walked that he may have acted rashly against yellow immediately if it had not been for Dialga's advice.

For some reason, Amber _could_ believe that Riley had met Dialga at some point. While Dialga saying that he should make sure whether the pokémon are happy before deciding whether to liberate them seemed a little farfetched, but she also believed that, if hesitantly.

She was actually starting to like the guy. She would never admit it of course. Messing with the guy would be fun. She had not seen him fight yet, but he was a human. He couldn't be **that** good.

The trees seemed to stop guiding them just as the edge of the forest came into sight. The travelers walked out of the forest and straight to a road. Yellow pointed to the right. "The town is in that direction. The most likely place to get those trackers out is the pokémon lab-"

"Lab!?" Amber yowled loudly, making Riley bring his hand up to his ear. Yellow looked the eevee in the eyes.

"Yes, a lab. It is possible that we will need to extract the tracker with surgery. In fact, that is a probability. Most likely, unless you get badly hurt, that should be the last time you ever have to have surgery. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be something to take it out without surgery. No matter what, you can't be safe until that tracker chip is out".

The last thing Amber needed was more sharp instruments when strapped to a platform, but if this girl knew what she was talking about, there would have to be one more case of being sliced open and stitched back together. At the very least, if she was not too badly injured.

"The town seems to be ahead," Riley noted as he walked forward. The many buildings of the city did in fact start to appear ahead of the group. Yellow looked back at the team rocket fools. "The first stop is the police station to drop these guys and the evidence off. Then we are going to ask if we can call professor oak about how to remove a tracker in the least invasive way possible. Then, we figure out what to do from there." Yellow described the situation. Most of the others nodded in response.

Amber shivered despite herself. Riley, feeling it, moved his arm that she was not sitting on and began scratching her ears comfortingly. Amber recoiled at first, but eventually she let him touch her. She started feeling much calmer when Riley was scratching her ears and rubbing her head. There was no apparent reason why to Amber.

As they began to enter the area with buildings, Amber was not the only one looking around as if she was anticipating an attack. In fact, that was exactly what Riley was doing. "Calm down, Riley. Nobody will attack you. Err… I'm pretty sure. Just stay close to me. You can defend yourself anyways." Yellow said.

That did not placate neither the human nor the eevee. If someone so much as laid a finger on either of them, they would make a scene quickly. Yellow sighed at realizing this. Dody and Growlithe shared a look. Well, Dody gave three.

The two of them practically jumped out of their skin or fur when Officer Jenny opened the door before they could walk in. "Oh, hello, Yellow. Who's your frie-" Jenny began before noticing the rocket grunts, "Oh, my. You had better come in. Have you got anything else?"

"All the evidence you should need, for these three. There was another large group, but we were not able to take them in. Also, there is a rocket base very, very deep into the viridian forest, farther than we went into," Yellow said, giving as much detail as possible.

Officer Jenny nodded. Yellow got out all of the materials and gave them to Jenny, all of them from her bag, which looked way too small to hold all of them. "My fingerprints may be on the gun, my mistake by the way, but you should also find fingerprints from one of these people," Yellow explained, pointing to the grunts.

"Both of the pokémon with my friend here were liberated from team rocket. Unfortunately, they have trackers inside of them and we need to remove them. Can we please speak with professor Oak?" Yellow added.

Jenny nodded to the kids as she ordered her officers to take the men into custody. Jenny led the others to a computer of sorts with a large screen. Yellow logged in and began to tap away.

"What is this thing then?" Riley asked impulsively, earning himself a strange look from Officer Jenny. Yellow was focusing on the PC, so she did not answer.

Growlithe answered instead. "Humans use these to do many things like call each other and such. Depending on which professor helped trainers begin their journey, the PC can send pokémon to the professor to be taken care of with this machine."

Riley looked down at him. "Thank you," he replied. Jenny raised an eyebrow at that. Had this kid actually understood his growlithe? The growlithe with a tracker. She had just heard it speak in its own language. Muttering "growlithe, lithe, growlithe". She wondered who this kid was. As she looked at him, she decided to do a bit of research.

Riley saw the screen flicker and an old man showed up on the screen. "Ah, Yellow!" the old man exclaimed, "I was wondering when you would contact me. Is everything alright in viridian?"

"Yes, professor, but there is something very important. Do you have a way of removing a tracker that does not involve a surgery, maybe a teleport or something?" Yellow asked. Amber started to listen intently.

The professor rubbed his neck. "Ah… Unfortunately teleporting a chip out would be very likely to remove… other things as well." He muttered.

Amber's ears fell as she shivered. Riley rubbed her head again. Professor Oak noticed this. "Young man, is it perhaps your eevee with the tracker?" he asked. Riley stiffened, and Yellow gave him an encouraging nod.

"Amber and Growlithe have trackers; however, they are not **my** pokémon. I would never claim ownership over a pokémon," Riley replied stiffly. Jenny noticed a certain undertone of 'how dare you' in his voice. Growlithe came into view for Oak. The professor had also noted the undertone in his voice.

"Of course. I can see your... This eevee is afraid of the process that will unfortunately be required to remove a tracking device. Would you mind telling me where she got a tracker?" The professor asked.

"Both of these pokémon have been recently enslaved by team rocket," Riley replied immediately. The word 'enslaved' caught the attention of the others, but before either of them could comment, Riley continued. "Having personally freed them, as well as the other pokémon that the rockets had, these two told me that trackers had been implanted in them. Team rocket knows where they are at all times, and we must get them out immediately."

One of the men looking through the evidence held one of the devices up at that time, the blinking red light in it very evident. Officer Jenny realized what this meant. "If you are going to the lab, I will send officers with you. We can protect you and the pokémon," She offered.

Riley was about to argue, but Yellow intervened. "That would be great, thank you," She answered. Riley looked towards her, startled. "Some extra protection would be good," She argued ahead of Riley's argument. Despite that, he still muttered, "I can protect us fine…"

"I doubt it," Amber said snidely. Riley looked at her on his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah? You haven't seen me take apart those rockets. What makes you so willing to doubt me?" he demanded.

"You're a human, and there's no reason to believe you can take anything!" Amber yowled in response.

"I saved your sorry tail, didn't I?"

"Yeah? With what pokémon?"

"I didn't need help!"

Most of the people in the room could not tell what Amber was saying besides Yellow. Even so, they all sweatdropped at the sight. They were just hearing "Ee-Veee! VeeVee Eevee!" and things like that on the part of Amber.

The argument continued between the two. Eventually, Yellow continued talking to professor Oak. "We'll come down as soon as possible. Dody's free from her burden now, so we should be able to get there quickly." She said.

Oak nodded. "That's great, and if the police are coming, that should keep you kids safe. Come along down here and we will prepare a way to get that tracker out."

"Thank you."

With that, the conversation was over. Growlithe turned off the PC for Yellow, which few understood with the exception of Yellow. Growlithe was feeling rather worried about the entire situation, despite the fact that he looked calm on the outside. Riley was even fooled, but Yellow could sense emotions and that was why she knew what they were saying. Even Yellow heard the pokémon in their own pokémon language.

Riley was the exception to that. It was certainly interesting. It seemed to Oak before the call ended that the boy could understand his pokémon just like Yellow could, and Jenny was thinking the same.

Eventually, Growlithe went to Riley and bit into his leg softly. The argument ended as both man and eevee looked down at him. "We had better go," he growled. Riley processed that for a moment, thoughts about his upcoming snappy comeback disappearing as he realized that the dog-like pokémon was correct.

"Sure."

After everything was in order, Yellow rode Dody and Riley reluctantly accepted a ride from Officer Jenny to the edge of town. At the edge of the forest, the group paused as Riley clambered off the bike.

"I think I'll run. You guys go ahead and ride there on Dody and… Whatever the heck that device is." Riley explained. To the officer's surprise, he leaped straight up into a tree. The police force was astonished at this kid's abilities and strength. Again, they wondered who he was. They never even got his name.

"Yeah, let's get away from that horrid machine…" Amber muttered to Riley. Growlithe was with Yellow now, and the group down there only started moving when they saw Riley impossibly bounding through the trees better than any manky could do.

Riley heard engines and pounding feet as the rest of them kept up with him. Amber seemed happy enough to be moving so quickly. "This is awesome!" She cried out as they blurred through tree branches.

"And you thought I was weak," Riley commented as he spun to thread the needle through some branches.

Amber snickered. "You haven't whacked anything since I have been around" She snickered. Riley scowled, much to the amusement of Amber.

"Cool it with the insults before I 'accidentally' make a mistake and you faceplant into a tree. I assure you, **I** will be fine," Riley growled in response. This earned him another snicker. She knew that he would never do that to her. The way he rubbed her ears was enough proof of that.

"Incoming!" Amber yelped as she saw a tree that was particularly dense. There was no way Riley was getting through that, right?

Riley leaped straight over it. He appeared over the treetops, avoiding the tree altogether. It was incredible. Amber got to see the others racing along the ground. Riley was actually keeping up with the others by running through trees?

Riley dived into the forest again. He was always careful not to dislodge Amber, which was impressive considering how fast he was moving. It should have been impossible. This human… Who was he really?

Pallet town was apparently a close town to Viridian, at least much closer than other towns were to each other. In fact, Pallet town was pretty much almost a part of viridian city. It could take days of running even like this to get to other cities.

"We're getting close…" Riley muttered before they heard something different. Riley whipped his head into the trees. Amber heard it as well, and muttered something about this no longer being the viridian forest.

Riley suddenly bounced off a tree trunk and launched into the road. He was slightly behind the others because he had been intentionally going slightly slower than normal. Regardless, the others noticed.

They skidded to a stop as a horde of rocket grunts came out of the forest, pokeballs at the ready. There were at least twenty of them.

"Get back, all of you!" Riley called to the officers and yellow, and then he looked at Amber. "Go to yellow. Now," he told her. She was going to argue, but his eyes told her not to dare do that.

" _Go now. Be safe. I will never forgive myself if you are hurt or captured_ _,_ _"_ His eyes seemed to say. She eventually jumped off and ran to Yellow.

"Get the eevee!" The group of rockets yelled as they rushed forward. Riley took staff in hand and held it in front of him.

"Prepare yourselves…" He said coldly as the rockets released all of their pokémon at once. There was a lot of them.

Yet, Riley knew what to do. "Any one of you pokémon who do not wish to fight us, I will gladly free you from these horrid people. If you wish to stay with them for whatever reason… You can stay. Do not fight me if you wish to go unharmed." He called to the horde of pokémon. Some of them faltered, though this time there were several pokémon who were willing to fight.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Officer Jenny called from her bike, beginning to dismount, "You can't fight all of these people on your own!"

Riley proved them wrong. He suddenly shot forward, racing past the pokémon, avoiding attacks easily, and was suddenly right in front of the humans. Three of them were dispatched in his brutal first strike, flinging them far away.

" _O-one shot? What?"_ Amber thought as she watched in awe. The series of attacks that was coming was about to take apart this entire squad of enemies. Even the enemy pokémon halted and watched in awe as Riley tore through the enemies with a series of strikes that resulted in nearly every enemy being knocked out. The fight had taken barely more than thirty seconds.

Riley grabbed the last guy by the shirt and slammed him into a tree. "Listen, pal. This eevee and this growlithe are both under **my** protection. You have to go through **me** to get to them. If you try to hurt them or **any** pokémon present, you will pay the price. I would tell you to get that message to your idiot team, but that would be a disadvantage. This time, I am going to do what I have wanted to for days to one of you little shits," He growled, and threw him up in the air, did a spiraling jump and slammed his staff into the human's skull.

As the man dropped to the floor, badly wounded, Riley's gaze turned to the pokémon. "Which of you, if any, want a piece of me?" He asked. Many of the pokémon backed up and the ones who wanted to get away from these humans went all the way to the officers; however, some primapes, ekans, and koffings did want to fight.

An ekans launched a basic poison type attack at Riley, who put his staff in the way. The attack sunk straight in and the staff started glowing purple. He then bolted forward and knocked out each and every one of the opposing pokémon.

After that, no more pokémon wanted a piece of him. They all were quite afraid of the concept. Amber herself promised mentally never to insult him for being weak again. He really could protect her, and willingly would. He truly wanted her to be safe.

They could have gone to pallet town immediately, but Riley was too busy removing pokeballs of pokémon who wanted to be free; separating them into sets of which pokémon wanted to be with humans at least, pokémon that wanted to join the police force, and those that wanted to go back to the wild.

There were those who wanted to stay with the rockets for whatever reason, which Riley allowed, despite his confusion. At this point Officer Jenny knew he could understand the pokémon. Pokémon were released, and Jenny promised to let them get to the wild. Three more of the pokémon needed a tracker removed, which Riley personally kept with him. The five pokémon with Riley were quite happy not to be on the receiving end of that staff.

Amber stopped insulting him for a bit. She could rag on him for other things, but knowing what he could do; insulting his strength was pointless. Not that she was afraid of being on the receiving end of that staff. This kid liked her a lot. Both saw the other as a friend already, though neither really knew if the other thought the same. Amber still had little trust for humans.

But was this guy even human?

"W-we should move on…" one officer stammered when everything was said and done and the team rocket members had been brought back by several officers in an unofficial manner. It was time to move on.

"An attack like that takes planning," Growlithe mentioned, "This means that we are most likely safe for a while. Perhaps we are safe enough to get these chips out uninterrupted."

That was certainly uplifting to most, though Riley was still quite tense. Yellow was thinking hard about what happened. "They sent twenty three people to get one eevee. They did not even try to get Growlithe…" Yellow looked at Amber, "Do you know why?"

"They always said something about particularly irregular genetic structure or something, or the fact that this necklace won't come off of my neck," Amber replied. Riley immediately looked at the three colors on the aforementioned necklace. He experimentally tried to pull the thing off, and when it got to a certain point, it simply did not go any farther away from her. It was like there was an intangible wall keeping the thing on.

"Well, that's interesting." Riley muttered. The others nodded. Riley dropped the necklace and ruffled her ears before getting back to walking. Yellow was happy seeing the connection the two of them were making. It was always good to have friends. Growlithe seemed to keep to himself more, however. The other three pokémon were mostly avoiding the staff-wielding human.

Pallet town was far, far smaller than other cities. It was actually quite small. It looked pretty peaceful as well. The lab was obvious enough; a big white building with a huge field spanning most of the visible area, in contrast to all of the red roofs and regular looking buildings.

Now, Riley found it completely alien to what he had ever seen before. He had seen the city a few times, and the rest of the time, he had seen the forest. He had only properly been inside a human building when he had snuck into a movie theater; an action that only served to make his meeting with Dialga that much more awkward.

So this would be a change of pace to walk through here…

"...I still don't understand why I can't just leap across the rooftops or something to get there instead of taking turn after turn. I could have been there forever and a half ago!" Riley complained after twenty minutes walking.

"Because there would be complaints by the citizens," Jenny and Growlithe said together again. Explaining the basics of human life had taken its toll on the two of them, but Jenny had to stay professional. Thus, the annoyance that was clear belonged to Growlithe.

Riley huffed in response, earning a laugh from Amber and a snort from Growlithe. Yellow seemed to realize something then. "Growlithe, you seem to know an awful lot about the laws and human life. Why?" Yellow asked.

"Used to be a police pokémon…" Growlithe muttered reluctantly "Had a decent trainer before…" Growlithe cut himself off there, which served to confuse the two teenagers and sparking their curiosity. Officer Jenny was not surprised to hear that, because apparently growlithes as a species were commonly used in the police force. She did ask to see if she could find this trainer, though Growlithe would say no more.

The lab loomed ahead. Riley began whispering to Amber in hushed tones so that most others could not hear it. "Amber, listen. We were told that you would need to undergo this surgery if you wanted to be properly free. So, what I need you to do is tough it out, okay? I don't know what it is…. Nor do I want to know. Just… Try to relax."

Amber looked somewhat frightened, but she eventually put her tough face on. "Okay," She replied with false confidence. Growlithe had gone through surgery before, having once been badly wounded. He was still worried about it, because sometimes surgeries can go wrong, but he was willing to do it.

Professor Oak met them at the door, understanding the situation perfectly. Officer Jenny stationed men throughout the city so that there would be some forewarning of attack.

"Don't worry, little one," Oak said to Amber as they walked in, seeing her shivering. "We can give you something to make the pain go away during the operation. Just stay calm and we can do this."

Amber liked the idea of that. Riley noticed her perk up a little. "Did team rocket never use this… whatever it is?" he asked. Amber shook her head. "They- They just held me down and made me stay still…" she said. A flash of murderous intent crossed Riley's eyes before he calmed himself down.

"That will not happen here," Riley promised. His certainty undoubtedly made Amber feel better. Professor oak opened a door that opened silently. It showed that it was well kept. Evidently, the place was well prepared. "Please, Growlithe, come with me. Amber, you can wait. You can see that this is perfectly safe." Oak said as he led Growlithe into the room and several assistants joined him.

Riley paced. Yellow sat calmly in a chair, helping Jenny with the pokeballs from the team rocket members. Amber was still on Riley's shoulder, as she probably would be for a long time to come. Yellow's pokémon were out and about. Eventually, Gravvy grabbed Riley by the arm.

Riley almost retaliated violently, but Gravvy explained that he needed to get rest. Riley was reluctant, and Amber was too worried about this operation to sleep, or so she said. Eventually, Gravvy just pulled Riley over to a bed, dropping him onto it, and held him down. Riley was not strong enough for the tough rock type.

Amber tried to get away, but Dody got her and told her that she at least needed to try to rest. With two, much larger pokémon looming over her like parents telling her to go to sleep; she reluctantly went to a small bed apparently for a pokémon her size.

Riley was feigning sleep, but Amber had not realized how tired she was. Being in a comfortable bed for the first time in most of her life, she fell asleep quickly. Even in a comfortable bed, she knew that there was no escape… from nightmares.

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 **All right. That's chapter three. Lengthy bugger... But that's fine, right?**

 **Reviews, please! I love knowing what you think! Also, thank you to everyone who has sent me OC's. I'm writing ahead here, so please don't expect any OC's for this particular story to show up for a few chapters at least. I can still take them, however. Template at the bottom! Dark OC's are perfectly all right for this darker story.**

 **Amber: I want to say: The amber in this story is NOT me. The other one is.**

 **Me: Amber!**

 **Amber: I'm not going to leave them completely in the dark. You'll have to deal with it.**

 **Me: ...Fine. Review, follow, and other things, please!**

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 **Nickname:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:**

 **Personality:**

 **Background (this may be lengthy):**

 **Unique Aspect (optional):**

 **Other:**


	4. Chapter Four: Nightmares

**Okay, massive disclaimer here. This story is not The Absolite Chronicles (duh), and it is not the nice and death-free world that only seems to go horribly wrong under the worst of circumstances. The beginning of this chapter and one other section are far different from anything you have read from me before. I will have warnings before scenes that can be considered excessively bloody.**

 **Thanks to Pigeoncracker for his work towards this story in the form of proofreading.**

 **That out of the way, I think we should get to recent reviews. *Tries to shuffle papers, but there weren't any* There are... No recent reviews for New Age?**

 **...**

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Nightmares**

 **Blood warning: extremely violent scenes. If you want to avoid this, scroll down to the next bold line.**

Her nightmares started again. The sky was blood red, the trees black and the ground hard as stone She was running from members of team rocket, but for some reason they were always faster. Hordes of pokemon they used chased after her. Every dream she had, they caught her a different way, and then they tortured her and eventually killed her. The dream would then repeat.

This time, a psychic pokemon stopped her from moving. She experienced pain as she was lifted up and brought before one of the rocket grunts. His eyes were pure red. There was no scientist with some instrument for cutting this time. Instead, a large psychic type stood next to the man.

"You give us too much trouble, you stupid eevee", The dream rocket grunt said to her "You have been labeled a lost cause, and now you are scheduled for termination".

The man raised one hand, and the psychic pokemon prepared himself. Amber tried to struggle, but nothing was working. The man dropped his hand, and the torture began. Amber screamed as her insides twisted and contorted within her body. She should have already died, yet the torture continued. Amber's screams echoed in her mind as the outside of her body began to be twisted into terrible shapes.

At this point, Amber's point of view had changed to a third person standpoint, but she still felt the pain. Her bones broke. Blood spurted out of her skin, and her screams became gurgled and eventually, the man swiped his hand again, giving another signal. At once, the psychic type focused even more.

And Amber's body swelled and exploded with the loudest, most bloodcurdling scream imaginable. The man's sneer looked all the eviler when he was covered with gore.

And then the dream began again. There would be another form of torture, more incredible pain, and then a grisly, bloody death. More running. Now she was grabbed by the fur on her collar. She was lifted up by a scientist, who waved a metal device in her face. He ordered a pokemon to force her mouth open, another psychic type.

The metal device was placed in her mouth, and it fell down her throat. After a few seconds, she began to convulse. Pain erupted in her stomach and spread to the rest of her body as that thing did something to her. Again with the third person as she thrashed in the man's grip. He never moved. His glasses flashed.

Metal protrusions erupted from her body as the object he placed in her mouth did its work. Amber's screams grew louder and higher pitched as she was slowly and painfully torn apart by the metal. These pieces of metal started twisting around, forcing their way out of her body and causing blood to flow freely. Then the metal wrapped around her body and started squeezing her on the outside while her body was being pushed apart from the inside.

Again, Amber's screams increased in pitch and volume. Twisted up again, her body was being destroyed five entire minutes of this torture, the metal made one brutal final move that chopped her to pieces by contracting and expanding at the same time, blood pooling on the ground and covering the scientist's hand, which still held a piece of her bloody body by the fur on her collar.

Back to fleeing from enemies. This time she was caught by a galvantula that shocked her repeatedly. The shocks grew worse over time, but it was nothing that could kill her until the same scientist came up, his glasses flashing again. He fed the Galvantula something, and it changed color to red. It's lightning bolts then lit her on fire, and she began to burn.

Now her screams were loud as she burned away, but the scientist did not leave it at that. He grabbed her, seemingly unaffected by the fire, and forced her mouth open. He made her swallow it and stepped back. Intense heat began building in Amber's body, and after a final scream, she violently exploded in fire and electricity. It had been over quicker than normal at least.

She died many more times in her nightmare. bloodcurdling screams and violent bloody deaths constantly. This was every night for Amber, and it never got any better. There had been a strange change last time she was asleep for a time, but that last part had not stayed in her memory like her nightmares did.

She was blasted apart, eaten, crushed either by being flattened or imploding by several means. Once she swelled to ten times her size before popping like a bloody balloon. Not every death made sense or followed the laws of physics, but the pain felt real enough.

It was during one of the stranger deaths that things began to change. Her bones were in the process of breaking into millions of pieces and then exploding outward like shrapnel when the pain seemed to dull. She still died as she exploded into little bits in a splash of blood, but the pain was just not as bad…

Why?

 **Back to normal… Unnecessarily violent scenes over.**

Riley was still feigning sleep. He was in no way exhausted. With the pokemon doing other things, he looked around the room. The first thing he saw was that Amber was gritting her teeth and scrunching her eyes. She was having another nightmare.

He got up slowly. The others began watching him carefully. Riley slowly walked to the eevee in the bed on the ground. He gently picked her up in his arms. Now the others understood what he was doing, and left him alone.

Riley gently squeezed the fox pokemon, sharing his warmth with her to help ease her nightmares. Over the next minute, her face lost the pain. She calmed down. Riley now returned to his bed, the eevee in his arms. That was how he kept her from having nightmares. Now she slept soundly in his arms.

Amber's nightmares had simply faded away. It had been slow at first, the next death upcoming, but eventually everything faded away until it was simply white all around. The calm aura of the surroundings were strange to Amber. She was confused. What stopped the nightmares? Why was she not screaming in pain yet again?

However, her dream began to truly fade. For the first time in most of her life, she was in a truly deep sleep.

Riley eventually fell asleep as well knowing that little Amber was going to be all right through the night. There was one thing he hoped to avoid in the upcoming time with the eevee.

" _Maybe she won't find my arm tasty this time…"_ Riley thought before he fell asleep.

Yellow watched Riley fall asleep. She thought it was a good idea for them to rest. They had spent plenty of energy today, Riley from fighting, Amber from leading a life of constant pain. Maybe the two of them could be beneficial to each other, no matter how rude the eevee was.

Officer jenny was right outside the building, keeping watch. None of her colleagues had yet reported any suspicious behavior. Jenny supposed that the kid had taken apart the invasion force so to speak. Soon, Growlithe's operations should be completed. Then, the other pokemon would be relieved of their trackers.

Soon, Professor Oak completed the operation. Growlithe was still under the effects of the drug, so Oak stitched him up and brought him out. The tracker was cleaned and set out. Jenny came in to put it in a bag for evidence, and instructed Oak to put the rest in that bag.

Oak was about to call Riley and Amber, but Yellow shook her head and pointed to the sleeping two. Oak smiled at the sight. He handed the slumbering growlithe to Yellow, who proceeded to heal him fully. The stitches popped out and the scar faded away.

Oak then looked towards the other three pokemon who were waiting patiently, anxiously. They too were reluctant until Yellow explained that they would be given something to take the pain away. While she held Growlithe, Professor Oak nodded to one of the other pokemon and they followed him into the room.

Several hours passed. Eventually there were four trackers inside of the bag. Amber had yet to have hers removed. Yellow gently shook Riley's shoulder.

Amber was the first to awake. She felt a soft pressure around her, and warmth. She blearily opened her eyes to find that she was once again in the human boy's arms. She was confused for a moment. Yellow noticed the emotions coming from her.

"You were having a nightmare. Riley calmed you down" She explained so softly that only Amber's sensitive ears could actually hear it. She looked down at the face of Riley. He had been the one to stop that nightmare? Her nightmares had ended because of him?

Yellow nodded at hearing this thought. Riley chose that time to wake up. He smiled at the sight of Amber. "Sleep well?" he asked. Amber hesitated again, but not nearly as long as before. "...Yes" she replied.

"Good. It looked like you were having quite the nightmare" Riley commented. Amber shuddered to reply. Riley smirked and rubbed her ears. Amber squirmed away, out of his arm and away from his hand.

Now Oak walked over. "Now its your turn, Amber. We can give you something to take the pain away. Now, it does take quite a while to wear off, and when you wake up you will still be somewhat affected as the others are" he warned.

Amber looked at the others, who seemed to be staring off into space. Growlithe was speaking gibberish to nobody in particular. "What." Amber said in a monotone voice. Riley laughed at the sight.

"I don't think it should last forever" Riley answered the unsaid question. Oak laughed and said "yes, that should end after about five hours after the operation" He said. Amber's ears lowered. "Five hours?" She asked, defeated.

"Yep. Five hours of gibberish. Hey, maybe you won't even remember it." Riley said. "Not helping!" Amber said to his face.

Riley laughed in response. "Off you get, then. Follow professor Oak" he said. Amber did as she was told, knowing this was the only way to be safe. Riley walked with her to the door, and leaned against the wall directly to the left of the door. He would be there in case things went wrong somehow.

Amber jumped onto a familiar surface that was used for cutting pokemon open that scientists used. She shuddered, but Professor Oak brought out a needle with a liquid inside of it. "Please stay calm. This is the drug that will help you avoid pain during the operation." he said.

Amber allowed him to near her, though she was on the edge. Any quick movements and things might get hectic really fast. Oak calmly pushed the needle into a certain place in Amber's neck, carefully avoiding the thick fur on her collar.

"It may take a while" Oak warned as he pulled the needle out and stepped away. Amber tried to pay attention, but after a few minutes, she lost track of time. She could no longer focus.

Oak heard her mutter a few things in her language, which he interpreted as confirmation that it was beginning. In fact, it was mostly gibberish. Amber knew what she was saying made no sense, but she could not seem to form words properly. She was going to freak out, but the thoughts just slid away like 'la-la-la…'.

"Veeee…" Oak heard Amber mutter as she pitched forward in her sitting position and her head hit the pillow that one aide had suddenly put under her. Just like that, she was asleep.

Now the work began. The aides prepared for surgery while Professor Oak checked the data on an eevee and calculated what needed to be done.

A long time later, Riley was still on high alert for a nonexistent threat. Nothing had been seen by Jenny's men. The others were looking at Riley occasionally. Yellow was talking with Growlithe, who was starting to gather his mind again after four hours.

"Ugh…" Growlithe muttered, and the rest of his sentence was gibberish. He shook his head. His mind was starting back up fine, but he still could not form words properly, which annoyed him quite a bit.

" _Come on… I can get this…"_ Growlithe growled in his head. "Growl-lithe. Lithe, lithe li-gro-li" Came out of his mouth with no real meaning.

Not to mention he had a stupid grin on his face that he could not seem to get rid of.

Yellow sensed his frustration and rubbed his head comfortingly. As she did so, Professor Oak came out of the doorway with Amber in his arms. An aide came in with the chip and put it in the bag for evidence. Another aide went to talk to Jenny.

Riley moved to take Amber, and held the sleeping eevee in his arms. Yellow came forward and put her yellow glowing hands on Amber and healed the scars. The stitches came out and the wound closed.

"That power is impressive" Riley complimented. Yellow smiled in response. The conversation stopped when Riley noticed that Amber was frowning, her mouth twitching again. He immediately began to rub her head in a comforting manner, squeezing her slightly. "It's all right…" He murmured.

Amber's dreams had started once more. Nightmares, the lot of them. The colors were a bit screwy, but for the past hour she had been dying repeatedly yet again. More painful destruction by several means. The idea that the cause of death never repeated was true in a sense. However, being eaten several times in a dream can be possible if something different is doing the eating.

Which just happened as Amber watched and felt herself get eaten by an ariados. At least this one had less blood than normal, but it was plenty painful anyhow.

 **Blood warning yet again. Skip to next bold line if you want to.**

Running from team rocket grunts again, she raced across ground that seemed to be several colors at once. The trees were in freaky shapes, and the sky was filled with strange and disturbing images.

She was picked up by a scientist. She squirmed and tried to bite the man, but he seemed unaffected by the marks she was putting on him. He smirked at her, and brought about a vial of green liquid. Once again, Amber's mouth was forced open again. When the green liquid was poured in, Amber's body immediately began violently convulsing.

She was dropped to the cold floor, shrieking in pain. She squirmed on the ground for several minutes as her body was destroyed from the inside. Eventually she gave a final cry before she dissolved into dust and collapsed into a pile.

She was immediately running again. This time a lone, large beast was chasing her. Again she was too slow. She was breathing heavily, as though she had been running for a long time. A giant clawed hand grabbed her, it's meaty paw completely enveloping her body besides her head.

The monster lifted her in front of it. She struggled, but the beast closed his fist slightly, breaking several bones with that one move and making her scream in pain. Jagged fangs showed as the beast opened it's mouth, and Amber was thrown into it's maw.

The beast chewed her up a bit, not managing to kill her yet as he broke just about everything in her body and puncturing her body in several key places. Once her screams ceased because her lungs were destroyed, the beast spit her onto the ground, where she began to bleed out. Gasping for breath was worthless. Blood pooled out around her as her vision began to fade. Before she died, the beast raised a foot and squashed her flat. All that was left was a bloody mess.

And the dream restarted again. Now she was grabbed by the earth itself. Rocks surged out of the ground and trapped her paws on the ground. She could not move. A team rocket grunt moved into her vision with a rock type pokemon at his side.

He sneered and taunted Amber. She tried to run, but her paws were stuck fast in the ground. The rock type summoned an attack and hit her with it, he energy blasting her and ripping open her skin in several locations and made her bleed badly. After a while of being attacked, the rock type made the stone trapping her cover her except for her head.

The grunt laughed in her face. "Time to die, little eevee" he snarled. He waved his hand, and the rock type did something. The rock shell around Amber immediately collapsed, crushing her flat while blood spurted out of every open part of rock. The body crushed, she died pretty quickly.

Next, she was picked up by the tail by a man with a tool for cutting things up, for that experimentation that Amber had gone through most of her life. He started by cutting her tail off, causing her to scream as she fell and hit her head on the ground. Then, he stepped on her before she could run away. grinning like a maniac, the man held her down and began dissecting her right there with nothing to ease the pain or stop the bleeding.

The pain became immense as the man began to cut into the more crucial parts of the body. Eventually, the man put something inside of her and began putting her back together messily, improperly. This caused even more pain. Amber cried out in agony.

Eventually, the man let her go, and snickered as he pulled out a device. Amber took her chance and ran, blood pouring from the improperly sewn cut from her chest to between her back legs, only for the man to press a button when she had gotten a dozen meters away. The explosive planted in her body promptly exploded. She died instantly, but was still forced to see the blood and chunks of meat explode outward from the bomb.

Running again. Amber fled for her life uselessly as a freaky machine chased her down with a scientist on it. He had a remote in his hands. This time, the chase did not end. The metal beast lashed out with metal appendages that slashed at her, causing blood to flow. With each strike, it became harder to move without extreme pain. Even though every movement caused such pain, she forced herself along.

She was slowing down, but so was the beast following her. She kept getting attacked by horrifying, blood covered appendages. Her flank was slashed completely open. Her front leg was broken. Part of her tail had been chopped off. Every wound spewed blood.

Eventually, she could not longer move. She cried with pain, rather quietly compared to her normal deaths in this nightmare. However, she was done moving. She could run no longer. As the machine moved up to her. the man fiddled with the remote in his hands. One claw made out of syringes. Each syringe held a different colored liquid, and there were six of them. The claw moved and stabbed Amber with all of the chemicals at once, pushing the liquid into her broken body.

"Most chemical mixtures cause explosions" The man muttered in a distorted, demonic voice "Do you know what these do?"

Amber's body began to shudder as she began screaming in pain. Now her body was pulsing from the inside as the chemicals did something to her body. Never in the real world would this work, but Amber's body then began stretching into a different shape. Muscled bulged, and her remaining fur turned blood red. Her eyes changed to something more reptilian, and the wounds began to bleed more. Amber's screams of pain echoed throughout the dream as she was changed.

Then, things stopped working properly. Her muscles continued to expand in her body, bursting out of the skin and bleeding heavily. Her body ripped itself apart as the insides continued to try and grow. This happened until the skin came off entirely and she finally lost too much blood. She collapsed fully and faded out as her body still continued to bulge and grow. Her body produced too much blood at this point, and spurted out from several muscles. Amber then stopped moving as the pain began to subside with apparent death.

But only for a minute before the dream began once again. Another human chased her with something in his hand. It looked like another device. Whatever it did, it would painfully kill her, she knew.

She was grabbed by one of her back legs and lifted into the air. Her claws and teeth flashed as she tried to injure the man, but none of her attacks seemed to faze him, despite him bleeding badly from the wrist and arm. He took the object and slammed it into her chest. Amber screamed as it seemed to melt right into her.

Amid the screaming the man dropped her onto the ground. She tried to struggle and move, but she could not. her body was moving, but not by her own effort. The man smiled as she found herself standing and facing the man.

"New trick that we made that lets us remotely control you. Now, you can never run away" the man sneered. Amber struggled to move, but not so much as a twitch showed.

The man gave her several orders, and each movement that she was forced to make caused a lot of pain. She tried to scream, but not even that would work. AFter ordering her to do some things to test whatever this dream scientist had made, he seemed to get an idea, a sneer showing on his face.

"Now, experience pain!" He ordered, and Amber immediately went under the most horrible torment of any dream. She could not scream, or move, but she was crying in her mind.

 **Blood warning over.**

Then the dream changed. Something blurred past her and the man suddenly dropped. Another being stood in his place. He fumbled with the scientist and picked something up.

The silhouette looked at Amber. The only thing visible of him was the blue eyes, like spotlights. "Stop" he ordered into the object, and the pain ceased finally. The human shape held up the small device, and shattered it with his fingers. Then, Amber could move again.

With the colors out of whack, she did not know what this human was. Yet, she felt strangely calm. The trees and ground dissolved. The shifting colors around her made her feel strange, but the black silhouette knelt next to Amber. "Come here… Come here, it's all right" he said, gathering Amber into his arms.

Color came to the boy, revealing Riley. The dream version of him stayed with her for the remainder of her dream. The Riley on the outside held her tightly, comforting her. For the next hour, Amber slept soundly. Yellow was quite worried about the eevee knowing that every time she slept normally she had nightmares. She decided to ask Amber about it later.

Amber was thinking rather clearly in this dream, though she knew that when she awoke she would not be able to think clearly at all. She was dreading that quite a bit. When her dream began to fade, she was a bit worried about what she would do if she could not really think clearly.

She would find it difficult to remember when she awoke. Riley watched her eyes flicker and open. There was a blank, dreamy look in her eyes. "Hey, sleepyhead" Riley greeted the eevee as she woke up.

"She won't understand what you are saying" Growlithe muttered. Amber's dreamy expression did not change, but she rubbed her cheek against his chest. "She's acting like a little kit" Yellow chuckled. Growlithe muttered something again.

"I take it you don't like knowing how you were acting earlier?" Riley asked with a smirk on his face. Growlithe was looking at the floor. "It's quite embarrassing… Was i actually acting like a pup?" He asked. Yellow smiled and nodded at the growlithe. "Yep, you acted like a cute cuddly puppy" She teased.

Everyone else laughed. Amber spoke some gibberish. Riley looked down at her in surprise. "Seems i hear pokemon in their own language if what they are saying means absolutely nothing" he muttered. Amber rubbed her face on his chest again. "Veeeee…" She practically mewed. Professor Oak stopped talking To Jenny to come over and check on Amber, who batted at him.

"Well, she should be back to normal within a few hours" Oak calculated. The teenagers nodded. Yellow turned to Riley. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

Riley pondered. "I am not certain… I was told to become involved in human society more, but it will be difficult… Not to mention i find myself wanting to take down team rocket. I know there are a lot of pokemon forced to live with those schmucks, so i intend to free as much of them as i can. I was told to find out whether pokemon liked being with their trainer before deciding whether to free them…"

Officer Jenny noticed his speech. "You are not permitted by law to steal a trainer's pokemon. Team rocket is an exception because they steal most if not all of their pokemon." She informed Riley. He looked into Jenny's eyes, and she recoiled slightly at the look in his eye.

"The law? I do not know what you intend to tell me, but i can assure you that i will not tolerate abuse to pokemon by a trainer. If i discover that a pokemon is being abused by one of you humans, the law will not stop me. Unless you have a 'law' that protects abused pokemon, which i **really** hope you do, the law will not stop me" Riley explained.

Jenny realized he was absolutely serious. If he had lived only with pokemon for thirteen years, and could understand them, then of course he would value pokemon over the law. Personally, she knew that pokemon were quite sentient, just like humans were. She thought about it, realizing that there was indeed a law about abused pokemon that would allow them to be freed.

"Well, luckily for you there is a law pertaining to the treatment of pokemon. We will have to take steps to make sure that you do not experience punishment for your actions. Ever since Yellow and that boy Hareta over in Sinnoh showed up, a position has been added to the police force for those who can understand pokemon." Jenny said, remembering the position only two at the time had.

"What does it take to take this position?" Riley asked immediately. Jenny looked him in the eye. "We have to go through a process that determines that you understand pokemon perfectly, and there are many rules you have to follow. First and foremost, you can't just whack people on the head and take their pokemon. You have to show your badge and go through a process that involves court. The process is very complicated, but it is the only legal way to take another's pokemon from them besides having a higher ranked officer see it for themselves" Jenny explained.

Riley let this sink in. If that was the way the world works… He had better comply or it would be very difficult to do anything the way that would be best for pokemon. Jenny rummaged in a bag that she had and pulled out a really thick book. "These are the rules for being in this position. Before you faint at the sight of it's size, the back half are examples of cases where this position was or could have been used, just to assist you with setting the cases up".

Riley hefted the huge book in one hand with the eevee in his other arm. Amber batted at it while he tried to keep it away from her. Half of the book was full of rules, but the whole book was almost too wide to hold in one hand. "Huh. Well, i had better study up" He commented. He looked at his clothing, having nowhere to put this stuff.

"When you are ready, go ahead and come to me in the viridian city police office. For now, we had better find you a place to stay" Jenny said almost to herself. Yellow piped up from where she was talking with Omny: "He can stay with a friend of mine tonight if she will have him. I think her son is in the Aertos region right now, attempting to beat that league. It's years away at this point, but he is intent on winning this time. Delia is probably quite lonely nowadays."

"You had better ask her then. Riley, you should stay here until Amber is back to normal. I get the sense that you and that eevee will not be separating any time soon." Jenny said. Yellow was getting her pokemon together, putting them all in pokeballs besides Dody, who she mounted and prepared to go. Riley nodded to Officer Jenny and walked over to a chair where Growlithe was nearby.

Amber batted at Growlithe's nose, and he recoiled. Riley grinned at the drugged eevee's antics and rubbed her head. She actually squealed in delight and nuzzled his chest. "This is the ball of attitude we know?" Riley asked wryly. Growlithe growled to himself that he had been acting like this earlier, and he was clearly embarrassed about it.

Unfortunately for Growlithe, while he has plenty of orange fur, the fur around his cheeks is not orange. His blush was clear for all to see. He hated the fact that he had been doing just that.

Riley then scratched behind Growlithe's ears, and he found himself enjoying the attention quite a bit. With Amber in his lap and Growlithe at his side, and Riley paying attention to the both of them, the time passed quicker than it could have done.

After an hour, Amber was still under the full effects of the drug and acting like a kit. She occasionally tried to jump off of Riley's lap, only to get grabbed in mid air and pulled back. "Now, now, we can't let you go around destroying Oak's things" Riley said into her ear. She was just not listening.

Growlithe sighed as she tried to escape again. She had the attention span of a newborn at this point. In fact, she had less than that. It was like she had no short term memory whatsoever.

About thirty minutes later, Amber's eyes kind of focused and she calmed down a bit. She seemed to shake her head a bit. Oak rubbed the back of his neck in thought. "She seems to be coming off of it, but it is rather sudden compared to Growlithe" He said, wondering what was up with her.

Amber seemed snap out of it. "W-wha? What have i…" Amber stammered before noticing that she was sitting on top of Riley. In his lap, to be more specific. "Is it out?" She asked hopefully. Riley smiled and Growlithe nodded.

"You're safe now" Riley said, rubbing her head "You're just fine".

Amber saw the weird way Growlithe was looking at her. "Uh, i didn't do anything too stupid did i?" She asked. And then everyone was laughing, even Professor Oak. Riley looked up at the old man. "Do you understand what she said?" he asked. The professor looked down at her. "No, but i can take a good guess" he replied.

"You acted like a newborn" Growlithe informed Amber, and she paled a little under her fur. Riley was quick to join the action. "Batting Growlithe's nose, trying to paw at my new book, trying to escape me and i had to grab you…" Riley said teasingly. Amber was shocked and embarrassed. he blush was apparent even through her brown fur.

"I will get you both back for this…" Amber muttered after she had been given the complete rundown of her shenanigans while drugged. She did not like the way the others were laughing at her. At least Growlithe was trying to hold the laughter in.

"Say, Growlithe…" Riley began, looking towards his new friend "Where will you go now? In fact, where will either of you go? Both of you are free to leave any time now."

"Are you crazy?" Amber asked "Wait, scratch that, you are. I'm not going anywhere away from you. I haven't a clue how to stay alive in the wild, and there is no way i am walking away from the only guy who can possibly protect me."

Riley cringed at the crazy comment, but before he could launch a retort Growlithe had his own piece to say. "I do not have anywhere to go. It would be good to stick around you for a while longer. Besides, you have proven yourself to be a friend. I will stay with you for a while to come."

Riley smiled. Two new friends to be with. "Professor oak, can i ask you some things?" Riley asked. Oak smiled. "Of course. What is it?" He asked in return. Riley pondered how he was going to word this. "If i am going to travel around and apprehend team rocket around the region, what will i need to travel?"

"Well, you will need a backpack, and extra sets of clothing. You should be able to get more clothes at your own house, right? You have to bring food and water and other essentials. You should keep a multitool on you. I have a list for new trainers that i think you can have as well…" Oak said as he rummaged through papers.

"And one more thing," Riley said seriously, "These pokemon are free from their pokeballs. What is to keep them from being captured again?"

Oak stopped. "Well, i am unsure… Pokemon who are assigned to a pokeball cannot be caught again, but that is the only surefire way i know..."

Riley then put his right fist down into his left palm in a manner that suggested he had an idea. Everyone looked at him. "If a pokeball is the only way to keep pokemon from being caught… If i were to leave pokeballs that were set to them where nobody could ever find them… Would they be safe?" Riley asked. Amber and Growlithe recoiled at what he was saying. He wanted to put them in pokeballs?

"Catch and then let them out, then put the balls somewhere where none can find them?" Riley clarified after a few moments.

Oak blinked a few times as he thought about that. "That would work, and i see little other alternative…" He muttered. Growlithe barked his approval suddenly. When Growlithe saw that Amber was hesitant, he said "It's the perfect way to avoid being captured in a pokeball for the rest of our lives, or until we find someone we want to stay with. Another human".

After a time, Amber sighed. "All right. If it's the only way…"

"Because Growlithe might want to stay with someone he finds, you can leave his pokeball with me. Now, Amber-" Oak reasoned.

"No way am i being captured or staying with any other human" Amber almost snarled "The only reason Riley is cool with me is because he's barely a human anyways"

"I don't think she wants to be captured by anyone else" Riley offered as a translation. Oak nodded. "My lab is a very safe place, but i would not be able to stand against a full scale attack. I would recommend putting Amber's pokeball where nobody could find it, or…"

"Or?" Riley asked

"Or bury it in the ground somewhere in the fields outside of my lab." Oak finished. Riley nodded. "Sounds perfect. You would have to know that it's even there and then…" he responded. He had no need to finish.

Professor Oak brought out two empty pokeballs. "These two are empty. Whether you are a trainer or not, these will bind the pokemon to their pokeballs. Here." Oak said, handing them to Riley.

"Alright, Growlithe first" Riley said immediately. Growlithe obediently stepped forward. Riley then looked at the little ball in sudden confusion. "Er… How do these work?"

"First the key, then the pokeball…" Amber muttered. Growlithe chuckled at that. "You should have actually seen it when Riley failed to open your cage." He chuckled.

"Tap the ball to Growlithe. Normally, pokemon are captured by throwing the ball at the target, but this will work as well" Oak said.

"Really? What did he do?" Amber asked Growlithe.

"He put the key-" Growlithe began before Riley promptly touched the ball to his head and sucked him in. "...That was close" Riley muttered. Oak gave him an odd look. Amber scowled at him. "Oh, come on…" Amber muttered.

"Touch the button to let him out" Oak said after the ball made a noise signalling Growlithe was caught. Riley did so, and the ball flipped open and Growlithe appeared in a flash of red light. Riley immediately tossed Oak the ball, and he caught it.

Oak then handed him the other one. Growlithe looked a touch annoyed at being interrupted. "As i was saying, Riley put the key in ba-" Growlithe tried again, but was interrupted yet again as Riley touched Amber with the pokeball immediately.

The ball clicked eventually, and Riley earned himself a long look from Growlithe, which he returned with a sheepish smile. "Tell her later" Riley instructed as he let Amber out of the ball.

"Great" Professor Oak said as he began walking towards the back door of the main room "Let us go out back. There are a few ground types in the fields who can help you bury the pokeball. I assume you want it buried deep"

Ten minutes later, a sandslash greeted Oak warmly. Riley was glad to see that every pokemon they met so far liked Oak. he apparently treated them very well and without failure.

The sandslash understood the situation, confused as she was about the fact that the boy could understand her, just like Yellow could. She had a hole dug about fifty feet deep. Once she emerged, Riley dropped the ball straight in. This was followed by the sandslash putting the dirt back into the hole and properly stamping down each layer of dirt. That ball would be buried for centuries like that.

"I can tell the resident alakazam where it is so that he will always remember and can remind the ground types not to dig around there" Sandslash offered. Riley thanked her, and they were on their way.

"So i expect your home holds everything you need?" Oak asked. Riley shook his head. "I live… In the forest. I don't have things that i need, even extra clothing" Riley explained. Oak blinked at that.

"...I see…" He replied eventually "Well, we will need to supply you with things. I can supply you with a few things that i supply new trainers with. To start, we can give you a pokedex. That will allow you to identify pokemon you see and get information on them"

"Sounds useful" Riley replied. "So, i assume i will need a tent or something. I have slept in trees before that have thick branches, but Growlithe is a fire type. Having him in the rain could be bad for his health. Then of course, you want me to get some changes of clothing? These metal fibres woven in here never seem to get too dirty, but i suppose i could use clothing with more pockets…"

"You likely do not have any money to buy clothing" Oak reasoned "I can buy you materials you need. Oh, and if you find a pokemon that wishes to travel with you, you can use the method you just used with Growlithe and Amber. That means you should keep a few pokeballs on you that are empty."

"...I see."

"A backpack is necessary, and food is as well. I think you probably don't know how to cook. Most of the food you buy will have to be food that you can just eat without preparation. You can keep many things in the backpack, especially with new technology nowadays" Oak continued.

There was more. Riley took everything in and kept nodding, and Growlithe was also memorizing the growing list of necessary things. Amber got bored and fell asleep on Riley's shoulder. Her tail flicked his face occasionally. Whenever she grimaced from a starting nightmare, Riley gave her a comforting scratch behind the ears to help her.

Oak gave Riley three pokeballs to keep with him. Riley accepted them and put them away in the little pocket space he had in his silver pants. yellow came in and called for Riley to follow her. It was time to say goodbye to professor Oak.

"Thank you for everything" Riley said as he held the bag with a pokedex and some other materials in it. His police work rulebook was also in the bag.

"I can give you a ride this time" Jenny offered "It's not like you can leap across rooftops to get to where you are going without problems, and you haven't a clue where you're going anyhow"

"On that… thing?" Riley asked, looking at the motorcycle. Yellow spoke up before Jenny could ask him what he meant. Jenny always liked her motorcycles. "He doesn't know what a motorcycle is, having lived in the forest for thirteen years and all" she quickly explained to Jenny.

After some silence, Riley reluctantly got onto the bike after Jenny. Jenny took off quickly, and Dody somehow kept pace with her on her bike. Stopping at stop signs was difficult apparently, because Jenny would brake at the last second. Riley had no idea what the rules for driving were, but Yellow was muttering under her breath. "Enjoying yourself there, Jenny?" She muttered to herself.

They arrived at the house very quickly. Riley's hair was blown back, but he seemed not to mind. Amber was screaming about how awesome that was, her hair messed up quite a bit. She had to be carried by Riley, but she still got the sense of having wind rushing through her fur.

Growlithe was with Yellow again because Riley could not hold two pokemon securely at once the way he does. He had one hand keeping his staff with him anyways. Riley would not dare let that thing go; it was too precious.

There was a woman at the door. "Hello, dear. You must be Riley" She greeted. Riley nodded. "Well, considering what Yellow explained to me, i would be happy to have you here for a night or two. My son comes home for a visit about once a month nowadays, considering how he plans to take down the upcoming pokemon league in Aertos, but you are a bit early to see him. He's always so impatient… But you don't need to hear me moan about that. Come on in, and we will get you situated" She said. She was quite welcoming.

Riley walked into the house slowly, taking in the complexity of the building. Shelves had things in them. There was a television and a coffee table, though Riley hadn't a clue what those things were. There were all sorts of gadgets and things around the house that Riley could not make sense of.

There was a pokemon sweeping the floor. He waved and greeted the others. "Greetings, Delia! You brought a visitor again?" he asked. Riley faced him. "Greetings in return. What is your name?" Riley asked. Delia answered for him : "His name is Mimey. He's a mr. mime".

Riley glanced at her, and then looked back to Mimey. "So what's Delia like?" He asked the mime pokemon.

"She's really nice, and she's really grateful for my help around the house. We're really good friends!" Mimey replied cheerfully. Riley smiled. "That's good." he replied. Delia was surprised. Yellow had said he understood pokemon, and it looked like it was true.

"Well, there is an extra bedroom, so you do not have to use Ash's" Delia said, and then she grew frustrated. "He never cleans his room anyways…" She ground out.

"...Bedroom?" Riley asked after some silence. Growlithe shook his head, and Amber facepawed. Delia was taken aback. Growlithe muttered "You might want to clarify that you don't know a thing about human stuff" to Riley.

"Oh, right," Riley exclaimed, "I have kind of lived most of my life in the woods until about a day ago… I have no clue what you're talking about when you use human words."

Delia noted the way he said 'human words'. If he lived his entire life with pokemon, of course he would have no idea what she was talking about. "Of course. I will be happy to explain things to you. Whatever you want to know" Delia responded warmly.

This lady was quite nice, though she had seen quite a bit of frustration when she mentioned some guy named Ash not cleaning his room. Riley wondered if that was her son, and if cleaning one's bedroom was actually that important.

Delia led Riley into a room with a bed. There was a bookshelf with some books in it, and there was a desk with nothing on it. "No one has slept her longer than a week when the visit. Sorry it's a little, uh, bland" Delia explained.

"No worries" Riley said "I suppose **this** is where i'm supposed to sleep?"

Riley was patting the bed, which was quite soft and welcoming. Delia nodded when he looked to her. Growlithe jumped on the bed and curled up. Amber, after seeing this, did the same.

"Well, those two seem right at home!" Delia observed. Riley found himself liking this woman. She was kind, had decent relations with pokemon, and was willing to help. Riley and Delia would get along splendidly.

Amber began to sleep, taking a nap. Perhaps it was because she had gotten little chance to sleep while imprisoned by the rockets. However, her nightmares began again and her face contorted into a grimace. This time, Riley was on full alert and gathered her in his arms again.

"She always has nightmares" he explained to Delia. She was taken aback. "Oh, my… That's horrible! What could have caused such a thing?" She asked.

"She's spent most of her life being experimented on by team rocket. I seem to be the only one that can keep her nightmares away" Riley explained. Delia put her hand over her mouth. "Team rocket again!?" She demanded.

Riley only nodded. Delia rubbed her forehead now. "My son has experienced quite a bit of trouble from a certain team of rockets. Ash is a special boy, you know. He was able to help those particular three take a different path in life. I think they are no longer with team rocket anymore. But i still have images of their attacks whenever someone mentions that team. I can only be grateful that team rocket has no obvious branch in Aertos." She muttered, just loud enough for the others to hear.

"I am sorry about that" Riley said in response, keeping Amber close.

"Well, those three at least are not like most team rocket members. Ash kept telling me he sees them treating their pokemon very well and being friends with them. Why they stayed with team rocket for so long continues to be a mystery to me." Delia said, almost to herself.

"That is very interesting. It makes sense that they would eventually distance themselves from team rocket if they are willing to treat pokemon properly" Riley reasoned. Delia nodded. "The three of them even showed up at my house to apologize for their actions—and get some food. They're always low on that kind of stuff, and it's a miracle that they haven't starved to death somewhere. They are quite the resilient bunch, though, considering how often Ash blasted them into the sky with his partner Pikachu. The fact that they survived all of that is astonishing, frankly" She elaborated.

Riley looked astonished. "Blasted into the sky? That sounds like something most humans can't handle, considering how they fall all of the time. I once endured a dragonbreath and got flung, but it's not like I have to survive drops like that every day"

Delia recoiled now. "You got hit with a dragonbreath and you're still here?" She asked in surprise. This only earned a nod from Riley. After some silence, Riley's stomach growled slightly. "Hmm… It seems I have forgotten to eat"

"Oh, dear. That's unusual" Delia said immediately "let me just make you something"

"I can help you make food, despite never having cooked before. Maybe you could teach me a few basics?" Riley offered.

That last phrase stopped the words about to come out of Delia's mouth about him not needing to do anything. It certainly would be useful for him to be able to cook for himself down the road. "Of course, sweetie" She replied after a moment, and Riley followed her out of the room.

Growlithe woke up for just a moment to see them go, and then gave a mental shrug and went back to sleep.

Two hours later, Riley's stomach was full and so was Amber's and Growlithe's. Riley had had to wake Amber up to try his hand at cooking. She had complained, but Riley had firmly stated that he would not allow Amber's nightmares to continue.

As for the two pokemon, they had their own late lunch. Amber had never had such good pokemon food. Growlithe had, but it had been quite a while. The two pokemon ate what to Riley looked closer to droppings.

At his raised eyebrow, Delia told him about the food and how each type of food was specified for pokemon species, and the servings had the perfect amount of nutrients for the pokemon. She kept growlithe/arcanine pokemon food after James had come along, and she had some spare eevee food from when a boy named Blue visited to help Ash learn how to strategize properly and quickly. It had been his idea for Ash to go to Aertos.

"Blue? I wonder why they named him after a color. Yellow makes sense for her name because her healing powers make her hands glow, well, yellow. What's up with 'Blue'? Riley asked.

And then he immediately realized he knew nothing about how humans were named. "Never mind, I haven't a clue what I am talking about" Riley muttered.

"He's got an eevee with him?" Amber asked. Riley relayed the question to Delia, who explained that the eevee food was good for all evolutions of eevee, and that there were just too many evolutions to put on the name of one bag, so they just labelled it eevee food. In fact, Blue had a jolteon that he was training.

"Who else do I need to know about?" Riley asked as he watched the television halfheartedly. It had been astonishing the first hour with that thing on, because he had never seen anything like it, but he was more interested in learning about who he needed to watch out for and who he might meet, and of course he was being polite to Delia.

"Well, there's Ash's, ah, rival I guess you could call him. He is with Ash at the moment, just like most of his past friends are in Aertos. It's quite the large group, but they tell me they hold their own. He's… an interesting kid to say the least with his attitude and such" Delia replied.

After some more discussion, Delia mentioned that it was Sunday, so tomorrow she would be working at the restaurant she had apparently inherited from her mother. It was a place called Pallet House.

"I could always help you with that" Riley foolishly offered. This incurred the wrath of Delia Ketchum very quickly. "After that disaster with lunch?" She snapped suddenly, reminding Riley of what had actually happened in that kitchen "I think not!" Riley leaned back, fear showing on his face for the second time that the pokemon had known him, the first time being during that lunch disaster. Delia had been quite angry with him then.

Riley was scared of Delia Ketchum. He had been startled by the fire alarm of course, but it was Delia's scolding that truly got to him. He eventually rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Hehe… I guess I am not the best at cooking, am I?" he asked.

Delia rubbed her forehead. "Please try not to cook anything when I'm gone," She said. Riley then nodded. "Got it, no cooking".

"That goes for you too, Growlithe!" Delia then snapped at the dog pokemon, who also recoiled. With Riley asking for Growlithe's help in roasting something, the two had nearly burned the house down. Thankfully, Delia had experienced this situation once before and knew how to put out the flames. Regardless, both of them were now subject to her glares.

"We won't do anything!" Riley and Growlithe simultaneously promised. Amber laughed out loud at them. "Boys…" She chuckled.

"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?" Riley demanded of the eevee, who just laughed in his face. Growlithe and Delia sweatdropped as the two of them began arguing yet again. It was almost lighthearted, their arguments.

Eventually, Mimey walked in after doing some chores to help Delia, and the three of the apparently normal people not arguing silently decided to leave them to it for a while. The three of them were taking a walk. During that walk, it was rather quiet. Just the way the three of them wanted it.

Meanwhile, Amber had gotten the idea that Riley did not like pointless arguments one bit. His reaction to having to deal with it was quite amusing. He angered easily. However, every threat between them was empty, every insult meaningless.

It was just the way those two worked together. In fact, whole unspoken conversations passed between the two in the seemingly heated argument. It just made sense to them and them alone.

The two friends eventually calmed down enough to notice that the others were simply gone. Riley was frantic at the thought that they had been captured right under his nose, and Amber had no way of persuading Riley that there was nothing wrong.

There was a five-second pause as Riley figured out how to work the door before he sprinted out of there and skidded to a halt on the sidewalk. he'd almost run into the group of three.

Riley looked into each of their faces. "Don't scare me like that! I thought you had been grabbed by rocket goons or somethi-" Riley began, but Amber promptly slapped him with her paw. "Shut up! Rockets would have made more noise!" She said loudly. This gave Riley pause. Amber would know what she was talking about, now that Riley thought about it.

"S-sorry. I suppose I am a bit on edge…" Riley stammered. Delia noticed his eyes were drooping. "Get to bed right now, mister. You may be strong, but you are still human. Look at you! You're falling asleep right now! Get inside!" Delia exclaimed.

She ushered Riley into the house and into his new room. He fell on the bed as she led him in. "Amber… When you need to sleep, come to me, alright? I can't have you… Having nightmares like you do. Don't go to sleep alone, all right?" Riley asked.

Despite having a decent impression of the boy already, Amber was nonplussed. He really did care for her, didn't he? He would keep her safe at any cost, for her sake, not his own. He would do anything he needed to to keep her safe.

"...Sure" Amber replied eventually. Riley smiled, and then readjusted himself on the bed. He was asleep in seconds. Delia smiled at the sight. Amber, not being able to talk to Delia anymore because of the pesky fact that the translator was asleep. She instead watched television.

She watched a news report on a pokemon battle between powerful trainers, watching the humans order pokemon around. What was odd was that despite what she had believed, there were smiles on the faces of the pokemon as they looked at their trainers.

Did they really want to be with those humans that ordered them around? She watched a tyranitar slam a blastoise and losing badly as a blast of water threw the giant pokemon away.

The battle seemed nonlethal this time around. There was another news story about an accidental death of a pokemon during a battle when a different trainer stupidly challenged a tough opponent. However, the opponent decided to take part of the blame because he could have refused but instead allowed himself to be baited into battle. However, both the opponent and the news reprimanded the foolish challenger for taking poor care of his pokemon in the first place. Apparently the kid had been rather angry with his pokemon, and he got himself caught.

Caught in the act of treating his pokemon badly by an officer, he was relieved of his pokemon after a short trial. the footage had been caught on one of the hidden cameras that police always wear after all.

Then some more lighthearted news stories as a woman was handed a ribbon that she immediately placed on her piplup after apparently winning something. The crowd seemed quite pleased with… Whatever she did.

There was a cooking competition. That was something Amber knew Riley would never get involved in after today. If he tried to enter, Delia would probably find a way to get to him and tell him to get out of there. Lives were in danger if he was cooking, she would probably say.

Either way, the brown haired man won easily. Of the people cheering, she noticed the same girl from before with the piplup, and that pokemon still had its ribbon on. These two events must not be live as the narrators said. At least one of them was lying about that, or else this human girl was faster than light. Amber chuckled at the thought.

More battles showed on the screen until there were some different news stories. One section that apparently happened on TV this time every day detailed recent activities of each team of criminals across the region, talking about which ones had been involved in anything and different things. Team Plasma apparently no longer exists.

"Delia! Get over here! I need you to write something down! There's no way I'll remember what time this thing is on every day, Riley might want to know!" She called out. Growlithe came over from where he was talking to Mimey, and Delia followed.

"Oh, you like this program?" Delia said, trying to humor the eevee when she hadn't a clue what was said. Amber addressed Growlithe directly this time. "We need to get Delia to write down the timing of this show and the channel so that Riley can see it at any time" She explained.

Growlithe looked towards Delia. Amber frantically waved her paw towards the TV and flicked her ears a bit. Growlithe barked and leaped to the counter where put his paw on a pad of paper with a pen next to it.

"...What do you want me to do?" Delia asked. She was completely boggled by the actions of the two pokemon. Growlithe pawed at the paper again, and Amber got the woman's attention by yowling and pointing directly at the channel number at the corner of the screen.

"...Do you want me to change the channel?" Delia asked Amber Growlithe growled and pushed the paper towards Delia. She hadn't a clue what was going on. She did see Amber facepaw, so she figured she was off in her assumption.

"We can understand you, for cryin' out loud, why can't you humans understand us?" Amber demanded. Growlithe nodded at that point. It was strange how that worked. Pokemon could easily identify what humans were saying, but the humans, they were apparently just dull.

Five minutes later, Amber had her face pressed against the table in front of the chair she had been sitting on. "You humans… Ugh. I can't handle you." This brought about a bark of agreement from Growlithe. That was when Mimey walked in. "I can write it down" He offered, brightening up their day. The two of them were a bit unhappy that he had waited so long, but he took the paper and pen and wrote down that it was a note for Riley, and that the updates for criminal organizations were on channel twenty-five at four o'clock on the television.

Seeing that, Delia just kind of stared for a bit. No wonder the eevee looked so exasperated. Delia had never seen an eevee without a big smile on its face at most times, so Amber's expression and body language was quite a change.

Now she was feeling rather awkward about the situation. Of course a budding police worker in the new pokemon translating division would want to know about things like this constantly. Even if she only heard them talking in their pokemon language, it was something she should have picked up on.

"Sorry, you two. Now that I think about it, that could have been much easier" Delia apologized. Growlithe nodded, but Amber was rather rude. "Yeah, it certainly could have. What's up with human's anyways?" She asked Growlithe.

"Now, don't be rude. She was willing to give us a roof over our heads for now." Growlithe replied. Delia misinterpreted Amber's speech, so no harm was done at all. "Well, I have an excellent dinner planned, so I need to start cooking that right away," She said as she turned around. Mimey, unlike Growlithe or Riley, was allowed to help cook.

Amber went to RIley's room, feeling somewhat tired still. She never got much sleep that often, but now she was tired all the time. She walked through the slightly open door and, after a quick exchange with Growlithe, closed the door when he was not coming through. Amber now clambered on the bed and over to Riley.

Remembering what he had told her about nightmares, she slept right next to his head hoping that that would help. Her eyes closed of their own accord.

The dream began. Amber's heart sunk at that, thinking it had not worked, but Instead there was no running. Now there was a single figure in front of all the beasts that were trying to chase her, and before her eyes, he vanquished every last one of them. The dream version of Riley was no longer a silhouette though his blue eyes glowed a bit.

He did not stay extra close like he had done when Riley had actually held Amber in his arms while she slept. However, He did stand nearby. No matter how she moved, Riley seemed to be the same distance from her.

Occasionally, his image flickered and more enemies would appear as if Amber was barely in the zone that was safe from nightmares. It made little sense, but that was how it was going.

When those monsters or scientists or rocket grunts showed up, Riley dispatched them quickly. Occasionally, he would flicker and his speed would drop. One time, she was almost grabbed by a large pokemon, but Riley did get there in time. Any enemy he took out just faded into smoke. At least they didn't pile up in a bloody mess.

Amber was just watching him for a while, but eventually, there was a strange shift, and Riley moved closer. "This dream will continue unless you do something about it, Amber. I won't always be able to hold off these things." He said.

Unless she did something about it? What the heck did that mean? Amber hadn't a clue. She was just an eevee. A fragile, easy to kill eevee with little strength…

"Amber," Dream Riley said sternly, making Amber look up. "That is not true. You may be an eevee, but in no way are you easy to kill. Not with the power you were born with. The same power that made team rocket so interested in you."

"What power?" Amber demanded, but Riley had gone back to taking apart enemies. However, one thing got past Riley. It was not the midnight black like the others, and it's eyes were glowing different colors whenever it changed shape.

"What power, Riley!?" Amber yelled as Riley continued to fight other enemies, seemingly not noticing the shifting thing in front of her. A red flash and its collar grew with fur, and it's tail became bushy and its ears became haphazardly shaped. A blue flash and it looked like it had a fish's tail with fins in place of the collar. A yellow flash and it had spiky fur and other spiky features. It leaped straight for Amber, it's mouth closed and the creature silent.

"What power!?"

Amber jolted out of sleep. She was breathing heavily. This was the first time a nightmare had actually woken her. Normally she was trapped in an endless cycle of death until she woke up naturally, but this dream was, well, strange.

"What power?" Amber thought to herself as she uncurled herself and sat on the bed near Riley's head. He was twitching a bit, and it seemed he was on the verge of waking up. It had been a dream. Riley was not actually in her dream… Yet, what was up with the cryptic message?

Amber felt no power in her. She was just a foot tall, weak eevee with slightly messy fur. Her eyes were the basic brown color, like most eevee. There was nothing special about her beyond having a necklace that she can't get off.

"Gee, what a wonderful superpower," Amber thought sarcastically "The power to never, ever lose a stupid necklace that seems to have no purpose whatsoever".

It's not like the stupid thing has ever been helpful before…

Delia came into the room, her hand holding the handle of the door. "It's time for dinner, sleepyheads" she stated cheerfully. Riley grunted and turned over. Amber smacked him on the head with her paw.

"Ow…" He muttered as he woke up fully. Amber smirked down at him. "Don't you dare make me late for dinner" She said, nightmare forgotten.

For the moment.

* * *

 **All right. That chapter was a bit messy. However, if you're reading this, you got through it okay. The next chapter for New Age will not be nearly as bad in terms of blood because the main conflict at this very moment is not that bad. Oh, that'll change eventually.**

 **I got no reviews for chapter three whatsoever. I've got nothing to respond to, guys! Here're a few things I would love to know from you all in your reviews.**

 **1: So far in New Age: World of Pokemon,** **what scene or moment did you like the most that comes to mind? For example, if you found something funny or well written, I would love to know. Not only will it help me learn what some find funny or consider good writing, it also allows me to re-live that part of the story.**

 **2: So far, who is your favorite character in New Age?**

 **3: A general response to the chapter; how I did, what I can improve on, and overall opinions.**

 **OC's are welcome of course. I would like them to come in PM form instead of review form to avoid spoilers.**

 **Thank you all for reading, and have a pleasant day!**

* * *

 **Nickname:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:**

 **Personality:**

 **Background (this may be lengthy):**

 **Unique Aspect (optional):**

 **Other:**


	5. Chapter Five: Curiosity

**Curiosity killed the cat, as some say.**

 **Jango: And satisfaction brought it back.**

 **Me: Where did you get that?**

 **Jango: Just read something. But you're busy spouting quotes that nobody cares about and has nothing to do with why the chapter is called that.**

 **Me: ...That was rather angry of you. Down on your annoyance of others quota? I had thought helping Aurorabeam Corporation with the next few chapters of his story...**

 **Jango: ... *Glares***

 **Me: *Gulps* I guess not. Right then. Reviews?**

 **Jango *pulls out papers* you've got four. Y'know, I think I'll be doing the responding.**

 **Me: Erm... Should I be worried?**

 **Jango: yes.**

 **Me: ...**

 **Jango: Westernfail. The bloke... I think this is an apology of sorts plus wondering at the lack of follows and favorites for stories like this.**

 **Me: *Looks at the review* Jango, that was rude. I'm going to have to get Amber over here if that continues. Westernfail, I believe part of the reason that these stories are not as noticeable is my choice of title and description. Fanfiction's search bar uses keywords for one, the other, or both. For the example of The Absolite Chronicles, the title does not include pokemon at all. Using more of those keywords is more likely to have a story show up on the search results. As a result of my description and title choices, it would show up on fewer search results than one that blatantly stated what it was based on. Hope that helps.**

 **Jango: Phillip Harbindinger likes your chapter. Says it's his favorite. So I wasn't the only one.**

 **Me: Jango, I think he liked it for a different reason than you did.**

 **Jango: You don't know that. Hey, both BookDragon and ZLAXE answered your questions.**

 **Me: Really? I got answers? *Takes the reviews from Jango* excellent! Thanks, BookDragon. I was going for more realistic. As for the pedestal... Uh... wibbly wobbly timey-wimey. There's your explanation. Thank you for your responses to the questions, and I was hoping for those visuals on the first two. As for that rival idea...**

 **Jango: There was the-**

 **Me: Shhh...**

 **Jango: Oh alright. Spoilers and such. You know I'd tell them everything in a heartbeat, right?**

 **Me: Which is why I made sure to have some first class dirt on you that I would make you yourself talk about. Anyways, ZLAXE, thank you as well for answering my questions. Sorry for the guilt trip by the way. It's just weird getting absolutely no reviews.**

 **Jango: His answers are vague... That's something I do all the time, but it doesn't make it any less-**

 **Me: Right! Thank you for the responses to the questions. The nightmare origin explanation is just not here yet. Also, uh... Get some sleep.**

 **Jango: Done already? I didn't even get to properly insult anybody!**

 **Me: Exactly. Amber, get over here. Jango, calm down. Readers, read on!**

 **Amber *walks in* Hyper, you nearly forgot. Pigeoncracker had some issues and, therefore, couldn't proofread this chapter. Also, Hyperjade wanted to apologize for not getting anything out last week. Pigeoncracker was not the only busy one.**

 **Me: Thank you, Amber. There will be an Absolite Chronicles chapter out today as well. Now, really read on this time. s**

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Curiosity**

"I **have** to say it" Riley began, looking at his empty plate "human food tastes **brilliant**."

"I knew you'd like it," Delia said, bringing about another plate of eggs and bacon with toast. "Would you like seconds?"

"Yeah!" Riley said, and Delia giggled and put the plate down. "Now, I know you're new to humans, but you have to remember to be polite. When someone asks if you want something, be sure to say 'yes please'!" Delia instructed the boy. Riley paused at the point where he was eating. "Yes, of course" he promised solemnly. Then he began eating his food in a more polite manner as well instead of scarfing it down.

It had been three days that Riley had stayed there at this point. Delia was a good cook, even though Riley was certainly not. For one thing, he could not grasp the idea that the machine in front of him—apparently called a 'stove'—could cook without an external flame source. Growlithe had figured it out eventually, but if Riley tried to cook he kept trying to find external sources of fire.

In fact, in light of recent events, Riley was no longer even allowed in the kitchen at all. Whatsoever.

Delia still enjoyed talking with the boy. Before he left today, she wanted to talk about a few more… personal subjects.

"You've lived with pokemon for how long?" Delia asked as she sat across from him where her own breakfast platter was sitting. Riley, who had amazed Delia by learning to eat politely so quickly, looked up. "I suppose thirteen years at this point. Metagross told me that I had been around them since I was four" He answered.

"Where did you live before that?" Delia asked, now very curious. Riley swallowed his next bite. He trusted Delia at this point. If she asked him to visit sometime, he would gladly obey. "Not sure," Riley admitted "Metagross only told me I was born beyond my new home when I was ten. Until that point, I had thought humans were another species of pokemon. I don't have any memories of when I was four. The truth was, after hearing what most pokemon had to say about humans, I was glad not to have any memories of this place. The problem is, it was, as Metagross would say, a biased opinion. There are good humans as well, as Yellow and Oak and you have shown me."

Delia found that speech quite heartfelt. She reappraised the teen in front of her once more. Riley showed he could let go of some things. Riley grimaced, however, ruining the image as Delia guessed what was coming. "Even so, I have heard many, many stories about pokemon being abused or abandoned. I have seen low levels of that abuse from the members of team rocket, and I know they are not the only ones" he finished.

Now he looked furious. The glare in his eyes promised pain to any who would abuse pokemon. Delia imagined that if he caught anyone in the act of doing so, the result would not be pretty. She could imagine now if he were to see something like that.

That staff at his new belt would be out and about the minute he saw such a thing. It was truly sad that he would ever have a reason to. Pokemon were clearly just as sentient as humans. The fact that this was not widespread knowledge was just sad.

But Riley, he grew angry at the concept. He believed it was unacceptable. If he saw a pokemon being treated badly, the human would get the same if not worse. That was unless he could learn to control his actions.

He had a lot to learn about being a human.

Delia smiled to herself as she caught Riley giving Amber and Growlithe a taste of his breakfast out of the corner of her eye. After years of Ash trying to be sneaky, not even this combat master could sneak food to his pokemon. At least, not without her seeing. However, Delia did not attempt to stop the boy. She only gave a nonchalant mutter about how bread isn't the best for pokemon.

"Oooh! You are so busted!" Amber cried out when she heard it. Riley looked down at her. "You want me to apologize for giving you food?" he whispered crossly. Delia heard every word.

"For someone who boasted about his stealth, your whisperings could scare off a tyranitar" Delia teased. This brought an actual blush to Riley's face.

Unfortunately for Riley, Amber saw that too. "Awww, that's so **cute**!" she teased the boy, who frowned and stopped eating. He picked up the eevee by her shoulders. "What was that?" he asked, looking in the eevee's eyes.

"I called you cute," Amber said cheerfully, not looking away. Riley scowled for a bit, and then he broke into a smile. "Yeah, because you aren't the most adorable little thing that's ever walked the planet!" he exclaimed, pulling her into a **very** tight hug.

"Ow…" Amber groaned "crushing… Me…"

"Who's the cute one **now** , eh, puffball?" Riley said, squeezing her tighter and scratching her ears. Amber struggled, but it was pointless to resist.

"Stooooooop…" Amber mumbled, her voice muted by Riley's shirt.

"Who's the cute one **now**?"

"Me! Me! I give in. Just… Stop… Crushing… Me…"

"Say please"

"...Please!"

Riley lets go of the eevee, who launched herself away and fled as fast as she could. Delia and Riley and Growlithe laughed so hard they thought their lungs would come out in the process, and they laughed for quite a while Amber hid in a corner and desperately tried to smooth down her fur.

As Riley finished his breakfast, and Amber finished patching up her pride, Delia decided that it was time to go shopping for things. Riley would need supplies to adventure around.

As the group walked into the store minus Mimey, they were greeted by a shopkeeper. Riley looked around at the miscellaneous items on the shelves. There were many different things. Amber peered suspiciously at some items she had seen once but could not place.

Delia walked up to the man manning the pokemart and started a conversation while Riley took in the layout of the room, muttering under his breath. "If we were to get ambushed, there's a back entrance. If we're trapped, we can always take apart everything nearby…" he muttered.

Growlithe bit his leg softly. "Enough of that. There's little to no danger here" Growlithe said once Riley's attention was on him. Riley reluctantly nodded, but he still looked about anxiously through his mutterings had ceased.

"Not a fan of the indoors?" the man working at the counter called to Riley, grabbing his attention. Riley whirled around, a hand on his staff in surprise before relaxing after seeing the person talking to him. "I suppose" he lied. Delia understood why he was anxious, but this poor man did not need to know about the possibility of an ambush, however tiny the chance was.

After that scene, Delia bought a tent, a sleeping bag, plenty of food and clothing, and other items for Riley including plenty of food that he did not have to cook whatsoever. Eventually, everything Riley needed was bagged.

"Let's take this back to the house and set up your new pack" Delia offered, holding up the backpack. She also held some blue balls that looked like pokeballs but were solid blue with a white stripe and a white 'I' on the top half. "These are the equivalent of pokeballs for large items you need to carry around. They'll come in useful. Also, knowing your method of keeping these two from ever being caught, I bought you four regular pokeballs to use the same way that you used the other ones".

"Awfully nice of you" Growlithe commented. Riley nodded at Delia's explanation and then the humans set to work packing things up. Amber was being lazy on the bed, though Growlithe was eager to help.

Eventually, Delia caved in and gave Growlithe something to do. Growlithe reappeared in the door with the pad of paper. The first page had the channel and time of that very helpful broadcast.

Packing up was relatively easy at this point. Large useful items like the tent were to be put in the item balls. Riley had the brilliant idea to set the tent up first and then absorb it with the ball. Delia did not expect it to work because this tent was in several pieces like most cheaper tents. However, it seemed recent item balls had been vastly improved.

The set up tent vanished in a flash of blue light. Riley put the blue ball on his belt on the new clothes he was wearing. His metal shirt and long pants were underneath and kept him cool easily. Just like the staff, his clothes from his old home seemed to have special properties such as keeping him at a constant cool temperature.

They were thin enough to be considered an inner layer as well. He did not look too poofy with the clothing.

Delia asked him questions about his life while they packed. Riley answered freely any question that had nothing to do with where he actually grew up. He kept the location secret with a passion. Delia eventually understood he was saying more than he should have in the first place.

When the questions ended, the backpack was completely packed and everything was prepared. "Thank you for everything, Delia" Riley said. Delia smiled. "If you're in the area, visit me, okay? It gets lonely around here even with Ash coming home once a month" Delia requested.

"Sure! It's always a pleasure talking to you!" Riley called over his shoulder as he walked towards the front door.

Delia watched Riley and his companions go. "That boy's a special one, isn't he?" Delia asked Mimey, who missed Riley translating him Regardless, he replied. "yeah…" he said, though Delia only heard "miime…"

"Where to first?" Amber asked immediately from Riley's shoulder. Riley looked about the town. "Think we should say goodbye to professor oak first?" Riley asked his partners.

"He **did** take those chips out" Growlithe reasoned.

"And drugged us in the process and made me act like a fucking kit!" Amber shot back. Riley laughed. "You know, that was pretty funny. Let's go see professor Oak, and if we're **really** lucky, he'll drug you again!" He said. He knew it would cause no lasting damage to the eevee.

Amber was horrified. "you wouldn't dare!" she almost screamed right in his ear "you're supposed to be a **friend** to pokemon!"

"Of course I am. I'm teasing you, Amber" Riley admitted. Amber smacked him on the head while he laughed, earning them weird looks from the other humans walking about. Some had pokemon with them, though they all looked happy.

"Seriously though" Riley began "Delia taught me to be polite, and it would probably be polite to visit him before we're off".

"I second that idea" Growlithe said. Amber sighed in defeat. "Fine. We'll go see the crazy drug happy professor. You guys happy?" She grumbled. Growlithe winced at the mistaken description of the man that probably saved their lives from future pain.

And then they saw the lab. Riley was sticking to the sidewalk after almost getting run over yesterday, though he had escaped perfectly unharmed by doing a frontflip over the thing, scaring the lady inside greatly. Afterwards, when she got out of the vehicle to apologize, Riley just smirked and waved goodbye to her without a word.

The walk to the lab was longer than it looked, but the trip still felt short to the others. Well, short for Growlithe and Riley. Amber remembered flying through the trees on Riley's shoulder, and knowing that kind of speed it was amazing she didn't ask Riley to sprint the whole way.

He couldn't rush through the trees like that any longer with Growlithe around, but Riley was fine with that. There was no real problem. Riley was surprised to see Oak waiting at the door. "Hello, Riley! I've been waiting for you!" he greeted. Riley waved, though confusion was evident in his eyes.

"I expected you would be along before you left for viridian" Oak said "i did want to ask you if you used that pokedex yet."

"...Pokedex?" Riley asked, completely forgetting what the heck was a pokedex was. Growlithe sighed, and Amber whispered in his ear. "It's that red device the crazy drug happy old man gave you".

Riley fumbled around in his pockets and pulled out the little device. Professor oak had a black screen in his hand and was pointing it at Amber. "i've been working on a translator device to at least try and understand pokemon" Oak explained "it still takes a while for this blasted thing to make a decision, and I don't know if it's accurate yet".

Riley looked at the little thing at every single angle, his face a mask of confusion. Professor oak looked at the boy fiddle with the flat little item. Finally, after seeing that his prototype translator was taking a while, Professor Oak took the device from Riley and pointed it at Amber.

Immediately, the device automatically opened up by splitting it's halves apart and revealing a screen. Amber's image showed up and all sorts of information about eevee's showed up on the screen.

"AMBER, AS AN EEVEE, HAS AN UNSTABLE GENETIC MAKEUP THAT ALLOWS IT TO MUTATE IN REACTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND EVOLVE INTO AT LEAST EIGHT DIFFERENT FORMS" the pokedex said in a male voice. Riley frowned at the thing. Amber did as well, though she was the first to speak.

"How does that thing know my name?" she asked. Then she poked it with her paw twice. "Hey, you, little electronic… thing. How do you know my name?" Amber asked again.

Oak scratched his head. "That's odd. It shouldn't have done that… It refers to pokemon by their species" he said. Amber sighed and looked down. "Why is it everyone, and I mean **everyone** knows my name all of a sudden? Even the stupid screen?" Amber complained.

Oak's translator was still struggling to figure out her first statement, and was not even trying to figure out the next one. Riley smirked, however. "Well, it's just that obvious I guess" he teased, rubbing her head again. She leaned away from his hand, looking at the device still. "It's still weird…" she commented.

Oak remembered something important. "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you! Yellow was waiting for you at the entrance to the main road!" he exclaimed. Riley was somewhat taken aback. "She actually waited for me? Really? he asked. At Oak's nod, Riley realized he had better not keep her waiting.

Then Oak heard a beep that told him the translator was done with it's job. he pulled it out, and did a double take. "I suppose this thing isn't working properly just yet. I had better double check it's coding" he commented turning away. All three of them managed to hear Oak's mutter as he walked away: "Amber certainly wouldn't have called me a crazy drug happy old man…"

Riley managed to hold the exploding force in his chest until Oak walked through the doors. Then, all three of them burst out laughing so hard, Amber fell off of Riley's shoulder. Both pokemon rolled on the floor laughing while Riley clutched his stomach and laughed harder than he ever had.

It took five minutes for them to even begin to calm down. That moment would never leave their memories. Oh, they would have stories to tell later in life about that. After a while, Amber was picked up by Riley and placed back on the boy's shoulder. Growlithe was next to be picked up, though he was set back onto his feet.

They tried desperately to collect themselves as they began the journey to the main road. Failing miserably, they found Yellow at the side of the road. She saw the group, **still** laughing their asses off. Her pokemon mentally speculated that spending time with the humans had lightened the boy up a bit. Yellow hoped that was the case, that Riley was not going to have an incredibly violent reaction the next time he saw a pokemon being mistreated.

If he was going to be involved with the police, he needed to be patient and he could not just take apart any offending human. Amber was laughing as well. Heck, even Growlithe was still chuckling.

"What the heck's gotten into you three?" Yellow asked the trio as they came up to her. The three of them tried to respond, but they were just losing it. What on earth could possibly been so funny?

The entire group stood there for another five minutes before Amber could speak. Riley recovered first but he was trying to avoid thinking about it again. "Oak… The crazy old guy… He's an idiot!" Amber got out, sending Riley and Amber back into hysterics. Growlithe was recovering at this point. "His translator… Worked perfectly and he hadn't a clue…" Growlithe wheezed.

"Amber… Got him good and he barely noticed because he thought his translator was wrong…" Riley added.

Yellow and her team in their pokeballs looked at Amber, who was giggling quite a bit. "What exactly did you do?" Yellow asked suspiciously. "Heh… Called him a crazy drug happy old man!" Amber said gleefully.

Yellow face-faulted. "You **what**? Professor oak is a nice and helpful man, Amber" Yellow reminded the eevee "he deserves more respect than that, and now he's going to change the programming of his translator when it was fine!"

This finally stopped the laughter as the three considered the repercussions of Amber's actions. "We'll have to apologize to him" Riley said eventually. He whirled on his feet before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He stiffened, and the hand quickly withdrew, but he managed to calm himself and turn around to see Yellow. The girl made eye contact with him. "We'll give him a call in Viridian" she offered "That way we don't lose time."

"Sure. I forgot you can do that 'calling' thing" Riley replied, and the group moved on their way towards Viridian city.

It barely took any time at all to get to the city. Pallet town was almost considered part of the city anyways because of how close it is. Once again the large buildings surrounded them.

Viridian city was certainly a peculiar place. Most cities build their tall buildings in the place of old ones, but the nice neighborhood that this place had was smack dab in the middle, surrounded by the massive buildings of a city.

Riley looked about, unsure of where to head off to. Yellow, however, made a beeline for the pokemon center, which was just around the transition from town to city. Ten minutes of walking, and they had found it. A large building with a red roof is incredibly obvious, just as it is meant to be.

"We'll give the professor a call here and rest up, then we'll get you to the police office to sign up in the position as an official pokemon translator" Yellow explained the plan, while Riley payed intent attention.

"Hello, dears!" the nurse at the counter exclaimed, waving a hand over her head. They were not the only people in the room. At the couches in the corner, a group of young boys and one girl talked amiably. There were a few pokemon with them as well, wrestling on top of the table in the middle and having a good time.

"Hello, Nurse Joy" Yellow greeted "We wanted to let our pokemon rest up for a bit, and I should probably sit down too. Riley here needs to contact Professor Oak again, but he hasn't a clue how to use the PC."

"Hey!" Amber said, drawing Yellow's attention "i'm the only one that gets to tease him!"

Yellow laughed at that. "Fine. Go ahead" she said before turning her attention back to Joy. She pulled out her pokeballs and let her pokemon out at once. Unlike most pokeballs, the pokemon simply grew in size as they leaped from the balls instead of becoming energy and flashing to the ground.

When they landed, Gravvy cracking the tiles on accident, Yellow nodded to Riley who followed Joy to what was apparently a PC. Nurse Joy started it up, and Growlithe reminded Riley to pay close attention to these functions. He might need to do this himself eventually.

Nurse Joy had another plan in mind than Riley just watching. "We're going to set up an account for you today. You don't seem to be a registered pokemon trainer, so we'll have to set up a proper account. Most of the time, you would insert your pokedex and then give a fingerprint sample, but seeing as you do not have a pokedex-"

Riley fished out his 'dex and held it up. "Gift from the professor" he explained. Joy seemed surprised, but she did some tapping away at the keyboard and pulled up a different screen. She took the pokedex and placed it in one of the many different shaped slots in the PC. Riley wondered what each one was for.

"Please press your thumb on this pad" Joy requested, stepping back so that Riley could do as he was told. When the lights flashed green, the screen flickered a bit. "The pokedex is now keyed to you. This is the newest model, and most of the time others cannot even use it other than you. This will allow you to access your account easily by inserting the pokedex into the PC and pressing your thumb on the pad" Joy explained.

Joy looked at the thing now, and noticed that a picture of a small boy had shown next to the fingerprint. "Oh, dear. It's been quite a while since you have submitted a picture for identification purposes. After we are done here, I would like you to come with me so that we can take your picture and replace this one with it." she said.

Riley tilted his head and looked at the tiny boy's smiling face on the screen. He looked utterly carefree. The only real way to tell it was him at all was the bright orange hair. "Sure" he said eventually. He was only able to snap his gaze away from the image when Joy dismissed it by changing the screen.

It took some time, but Riley learned how to use the keyboard and other things. Nurse Joy had thought Riley was joking when he said he hadn't a clue how to use these things, but Yellow caught the conversation and vouched for him.

"An impressive machine" Riley commented, looking at the screen again. He could learn to type over time. For now, he was at a medium speed of typing. Even so, Joy had him test out the machine by calling professor Oak, a contact that was automatically within his account because of the pokedex. In fact, he had the ability to call on any professor in any region. The perks of being a pokemon trainer… Without actually being one.

"Why, hello there Riley!" Professor Oak greeted the boy as his face appeared on the screen. "I didn't expect you to call so soon! What do you need?"

Riley rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Uh, I actually needed to apologize to you…" he said slowly.

"Apologize? Whatever for?"

"Well, we sort of did not stop you as you went inside to check on your translator… We wanted to tell you that it actually was working perfectly. Amber was just being rude." Riley replied, adding the last part quickly to avoid any confusion.

"Hey!" Amber exclaimed, smacking him upside the head with her paw. Riley looked at her. "You **were** being rude." he replied before turning back to professor oak, who looked a little insulted. "She was just going off of the whole drug thing you used on her. She doesn't seem to appreciate you basically saved her life, though i'll be sure to drill that into her head. I wanted to apologize that we said nothing about it right then. And **this** one has an apology for you."

"No I don't." Amber put in. Riley glared at her. "Yes you do. Apologize to the professor."

Amber got her act together, realizing Riley was quite serious. So she acted serious as well. "Sorry, old man. You **did** save my life, so… it was probably, um, unfair of me to call you that" she apologized.

Professor oak had the translator out while Amber was apologizing, and looked at it. "Thankfully I changed how it searched meanings faster before I changed the overall translating program" he muttered, tapping away at the device. He moved it towards the screen, showing the message: Sorry, old woman. you did save my life so it was probably, er, unfair of me to call you that.

"She said 'um', not 'er', and the translator seems to have mixed up genders" Riley pointed out. Oak quickly looked back at it. "Yes, it seems so. Thank you, by the way. That's a great help" Professor Oak said.

"You're welcome. I must thank you for everything you have done as well" Riley responded. Both smiled at each other before the call was terminated. "You seem to be getting along splendidly with other humans so far" Growlithe noted.

"The first impression of humans weren't brilliant, but i'm meeting some great ones nowadays" Riley said, pulling out his pokedex from the machine. The computer turned off immediately.

"If you could please follow me, now" Joy said, moving towards a door off in the corner. Riley obeyed the nurse and found himself in a room with a camera, a white plate on the wall, as well as several sheets with different images, or backgrounds.

Riley got into frame, with Amber still on his shoulder. Nurse Joy smiled at the sight. "I'll be sure to get your eevee in the picture as well" she promised sweetly as she readjusted the camera. "Do you want a background to this picture?"

"Will anybody else be seeing it?"

"A few others, especially anyone around you when you access the PC"

"Sure. Let's see… this one" Riley said, pulling a blue background out of the pile that reminded Riley of Dialga's diamond on his chest. It was the same blue, and seemed to have random lines that separated shades of blue that were ever so slightly different. It was like a gem pictured close up.

After hopelessly trying to figure out the clasps on the top of the large piece of paper, Joy decided to help him and spare him the embarrassment. Amber was going to tease him about this at some point, everyone except Joy knew.

After some hassle, Riley got his photo taken. Riley had been told to smile, which he had obeyed, but faking a smile was not easy for him. Eventually, the picture looked 'presentable' and Riley was walked back out as Joy went and fiddled with the PC again. Eventually, the picture was changed from a little smiling boy to a smirking teenager with an eevee on his shoulder.

Riley was ready to continue on, but he was distracted by a conversation the group of kids and their pokemon were having. He decided that his duty given to him by Dialga was something he could work on right at this moment.

Riley took the chair that was empty and sat near the others while Growlithe greeted the pokemon. "Hello" he simply said, drawing the attention of the others. Amber stayed on Riley's shoulder, tail curled around his neck. They all gave different forms of greeting. 'hi's, 'hello's, and a few waves of the hands.

They began to continue their conversation, realizing Riley was not going to continue talking. Instead, Riley scooted his chair forward and looked at the pokemon talking on the table. There was a moment when those pokemon suddenly realized he was looking right at them.

"This is Riley. He's a trusted friend of pokemon" Growlithe introduced Riley "He understands what we say, and honestly prefers talking to pokemon rather than humans."

Riley gave a smirk. "Hi." was all he said. The pokemon came over. Growlithe not included, there were three of them. One was a pidgey. The other two looked like grass types, though Riley had never seen them before. "What species of pokemon are you?" he asked.

"Those two are Bulbasaur and Chikorita" one of the boys answered for their pokemon, incorrectly assuming he was asking them. Riley looked up. "I was actually asking your pokemon" he replied before looking back down. The boy's look of confusion was matched by the others.

"Tell me, how do you like being with humans?" he asked. The pokemon brightened. "It's great!" the one with the bulb on his back exclaimed. This was probably Bulbasaur. Chikorita exclaimed something about how nice her human was.

"That's brilliant" Riley said, rubbing each of their heads. "What kind of people are they?" he asked.

"My trainer is friendly and he always plays with me" the bulbasaur answered first. It was at this point that Riley realized that these two must be just kids. "He caught Pidgey yesterday and he feeds us and-" he was interrupted by the chikorita. " **My** trainer is the best out there! She's always hugging me and other pokemon she meets, even if they fall into her arms trying to attack her!"

"No, **my** trainer is the best!"

"No, **Mine**!"

The two grass types started wrestling again. Pidgey shook her little head at the sight. "They're just little kids…" she reminded herself. Riley patted the bird on her head. "Yep. They're kids all right. How do you like your trainer yourself?" he asked the pidgey.

At this point, the other kids were staring at the older boy, clearly understanding the pokemon. Pidgey huffed. "I was beaten by that little squirt when the trainer challenged me to a fight. It's my own fault, really, for not just flying away. I got caught. However, this human has given a good first impression for me. I suppose he can't be all that bad".

It was interesting to know that. "Thank you, Pidgey. I'll be sure to keep that sentiment in mind when I talk to pokemon under the ownership of other trainers" he said. The little bird looked at him, slightly surprised that the boy understood perfectly.

Chikorita broke away. "The guy right next to my trainer always teases us with food though…" she complained. Bulbasaur rolled to a stop. "Hey, you know it's funny. You're the only one who keeps humoring him" he pointed out. Riley, for his part had looked up at the tanned kid who was sitting next to the only girl. "Did he now?" Riley drawled.

This caused the kid to start sweating a bit. However, there was certainly humor there and intended. Riley stood up. "Well, these pokemon are in good health" he commented and began to walk away.

"Wait!" one of the other boys cried out as he stood up too. "You can understand them? How?" he asked.

Riley gave it some thought. "I'm not really sure. I just hear them talking in my language. Probably something clever. I don't know. It was a long, long time before I realized nobody else could understand them. But…" Riley turned around to look at the boy. "Treat them alright, okay? It's hard to tell when you can't understand something, but pokemon are easily just as sentient as humans. Remember that" he said.

Then he did walk away, his message permanently etched into the mind of each one of the kids. "Wow…" one of them muttered. "He's cool!" another one whisper-shouted to a third.

"Good with kids, I see" Yellow commented as Riley walked up to her. "...Maybe" he grunted.

"He's embarrassed again!" Amber cried out from his shoulder. Growlithe snorted, knowing what was coming. "And you were the one to call me cute!" Amber finished, sealing her fate.

"Yeah?" Riley said, making a move to grab her. Amber leapt atop his head, looking triumphantly down at him. What she did not expect was for him to just tilt his head and she fell off right into his arms.

"You want to call **me** cute?" he challenged, crushing her in his hug once more. "You wanna repeat that?"

"Owwwwowowow…" Amber groaned from his arms. The others laughed at the antics between the two. "Fffine. You're not cute! I take it back!"

"Who's the cute one?"

"I am! Please… Let me go… Crushing me…"

"Say the word."

"P-please!"

Riley let her go again. It was an exact repeat of last time, where Amber shot away to lick her wounded pride. The other kids had seen the entire scene, and though they only really understood Riley's bits of dialogue, they got the general idea and laughed hard.

"He's evil, I tell you!" Amber shouted to the first pokemon to near her, which was a chancey. "Is he now?" the motherly normal type asked looking over to where the humans were laughing. Growlithe heard the conversation, and shook his head no, Riley was not evil in any way.

"Hmm…" the chancey murmured before returning to work. Amber got back to trying to piece herself together.

" _Next time, I will escape before he can do anything!"_ She promised in her head.

Yellow heard this thought, and called over to her. "It's not like he'll let you do **that**!" she called. Amber froze. She knew Yellow understood pokemon by reading their thoughts and emotions, but from that distance?

Riley couldn't begin to guess what was in the head of that little fox, but it clearly amused Yellow. He hadn't caught the evil comment, but it probably would have resulted in a similar situation for Amber if he had.

Eventually, things calmed down. Amber ended up on Riley's shoulder once more, though she was tense this time. The next time, she would escape. She promised herself that, though Yellow looked at her and smiled.

" _There's just no escape when one can understand what you say and the other one can read what you think!"_ Amber thought crossly. She was fuming for a bit before Riley reached up and began scratching her ears and rubbing her head.

She wanted to say angry, but it was not going to be possible if the human she was sitting on was going to be so friendly. Eventually, she was back to normal. What amber could not see was the triumphant smirk on Riley's face.

The police building was close to the pokemon center, so it was a short walk. Jenny greeted them when they entered, having waited for their arrival.

"Have you been studying that book I gave you?" Jenny asked Riley, who nodded. "Yesterday in particular I spent most of the day reading through the rules, though I do doubt I remember them all. I'll have to keep it." Riley answered.

Eventually, Jenny dismissed Yellow and Riley followed the policewoman into a secluded room. "The first thing we need to do is determine that you can understand pokemon. For legal reasons" she added, seeing the boy about to argue. He shut his mouth and let her continue.

"For these questions and upcoming questions, your pokemon will have to wait out in the main room. Yellow can take care of them" Jenny continued.

Riley looked into his two friends' eyes. "Is that all right with the two of you?" he asked. Growlithe nodded, and walked out the still open door. Amber couldn't help but pass a comment about how Yellow was nicer anyways before slipping out the door.

"We will bring in five pokemon that have never seen you before to test you. Again, this is for legal reasons. The first…" Jenny began, and another officer came in with a pokeball. He released his spearow.

"Now, this pokemon has been instructed on what to do, so there is no need to explain. You will translate what this pokemon is saying. If you get it perfectly, Spearow will nod and you will be tested with the next pokemon. Are we clear?" Jenny asked.

"Of course" Riley replied.

"There are exactly three tests" the spearow said.

"There are exactly three tests" Riley repeated.

After the spearow nodded, Jenny said "next!"

The process continued. Each statement was something to tell him what was going to happen in the next tests… without directly talking about what was going to happen on the next test.

Riley passed each of the five pokemon's phrases without so much as stammering or shifting uncomfortably. Jenny smiled at him from across the table afterwards. "Very good. Now, the second test for this job…" she began, opening a nearby file case and pulled out a few papers. She flipped through them.

"Ah. Now, I am going to ask a few questions about pokemon themselves. It is imperative that people working this job know how a pokemon's body works. Now. Can you describe most pokemon's dietary habits?"

"Most pokemon eat mostly berries for their nutrients. However, many bug types are rather herbivores and several larger pokemon as well as a good chunk of mammal type pokemon can be carnivores or omnivores. A growlithe is an omnivore. An eevee can subsist on berries" Riley replied instantly, one of Metagross' lessons coming to mind and remembering what Growlithe and Amber ate.

"Typically, how would you handle a bleeding wound on a wild pokemon?"

"Approach carefully. The first and most important job is to stop the bleeding through whatever means necessary. To do that, you must calm the patient down first and try to avoid stressing the patient out." Riley immediately answered again. That lesson had been given to him by an audino.

"Very good. The way you answer so quickly tells me that you have been taught many things previously. I expect you were taught these things by pokemon themselves, partially due to the fact that you avoid using the word 'pokemon', instead replacing it with 'patient'."

"I had brilliant teachers. A metagross and an audino specifically" Riley said.

"One more question for you. I want you to answer truthfully, all right?" Jenny asked. Seeing the boy nod, she took a deep breathe and began. "If you had to make a choice. You can only save one of them from certain death, and the other will obviously die. One of them is human, the other is a pokemon. Who will you save?"

Silence.

" _What is_ _ **this**_ _sick joke?"_ Riley thought, disgusted. He stared Jenny down. The police woman suddenly found herself slightly uneasy. Riley had immediately reappraised her and the new impression he had of her was not great in the slightest.

Eventually, Riley leaned forward. "There is no answer to that question" he practically snarled. Now was when Jenny had to be uncharacteristically stern in the face of an innocent. She would be fine doing this interrogating someone, but this boy…

"There is an answer." She shot back. She knew that the boy would have to choose. She awaited his answer.

Riley boiled in his seat, imagining flames around him. He now had to think. Jenny would not let him go without an answer. Who would he save, really? He imagined a double sided cliff. Two others hung from the edge on each side, about to fall. One was a random human. Then other… was a riolu. He could visualize the riolu much more clearly than the human, seeing tears in the riolu's fearful eyes.

And he knew what kind of decision he would make in an instant. He would pull the riolu into his arms while the human fell. Why? Why would he do that?

" _Because I couldn't see the human with any emotion. I could not visualize him well enough"_ Riley now realized as he slumped in defeat in real life.

"Because for all I can remember, I have lived with only pokemon… I have grown with the understanding that humans were enslaving monsters with no compassion based on the understanding of humans that wild pokemon have. If I truly had to choose between a human and a pokemon… I would save the pokemon. Even having been around other humans for nearly five days, maybe six, I could not imagine the emotion in your eyes. For the pokemon, it was easy to imagine it's fear" Riley explained. He had no idea whether to feel terrible or even worse.

Admitting that may have been the hardest thing Riley had ever done in his life.

Jenny looked sadly at the boy who now refused to meet her eyes. He had brought to light something that he maybe would have wanted to keep secret from other humans.

Most of the men she asked this question to would eventually or even immediately say they would save the human. Those that said they would save the pokemon, some of them later admitted to answering in that manner because they feared it was a trick question.

However, this question was far more personal for Riley. The boy had openly admitted to being more likely to save a pokemon rather than a human. Jenny used this question to discover not who would save who, but why. Riley's prejudice against humans and lack of experience with said humans was not completely unjustified, really.

Many humans grow up with other humans, and consider pokemon basic animals that can be treated at least less well than a human should be treated. Riley was the exact opposite, having been raised by pokemon. Both sides were truly equal. Humans had an advantage with their technology. In fact, humans held the advancement of pokemon with that same technology.

It was just how the world was. There was nothing that could really change such a thing. This boy demonstrated that perfectly. Not only that, but he knew exactly how much of a problem it was.

He passed the third portion of her little exam with flying colors. However, the price was too much for the boy. The normally tough human was covering his eyes with his arms, shivering. Admitting the fact that he would leave a human to die with such a choice had nearly crushed him as he realized it himself.

Officer Jenny got up and left the room. Riley heard her leave but did not truly register it. He just sat there, trying to be tough and failing.

" _I truly am a failure. Who could I justify protecting if it's impossible to protect everyone?"_ Riley relayed in his head, over and over and over again.

Jenny approached as quietly as possible as to not disturb the boy she had done this to. She admitted to herself that she had not anticipated this violent of a reaction from the poor boy. She gave him a fond smile as she placed a badge, a police distress signal, and identification made from the image he took just today in front of him. If he hadn't taken that picture, he would have to walk around with the picture of his four year old self

Now when he left, Jenny resolved to find who he was. Riley, whatever his last name was. She was certain he used to live very near him.

She would simply search for red haired boys that went missing thirteen years ago, and had the first name 'Riley'. She felt that if she got more than one entry at all, it would be impressive. The database was no help, because there had been some data corruption surrounding the picture of Riley.

It was a miracle that picture had even shown up at all.

Riley eventually looked up to see the gifts. It had been a long time. The others outside were probably worried about him. Jenny sat patiently, her fingers laced together and her arms on the table in a polite manner.

"The book of rules I had given you will detail the appropriate manner of which to use this badge. The identification is further proof of your position, as any person has the right to question your legitimacy. It also allows you to give suggestions… **Polite** suggestions for new laws, within reason. And finally, that distress signal acts like a tracker that only the police can track. Activate it, and the police force will immediately send a squad to your location." Jenny explained.

Riley was silent. He just stared wide eyed at the items in front of him. How had he passed? As far as he could tell, he should have failed. This job had been the only way he could legally help pokemon, and he was sure he had just blown it, along with realizing the monster that he was.

And if he had not gotten this badge, he would have to go and free pokemon that were being abused anyways. He would have essentially become an outlaw, or at least that was the word the book used instead of criminal.

But he had the badge sitting in front of him. It simply was not possible, right? For Riley, there was no chance this was not a joke. Another sick joke. Riley wouldn't dare touch the items or even reach for them, fearing the woman would simply pull it away.

Teasing him. That was what was happening. He was being teased. For the first time, he felt like a fool. Why had he ever trusted humans? Why had he bothered doing anything other than just run around freeing pokemon?

" _Yellow proved that some humans can be trusted. She understands pokemon. And then, there were those kids with their pokemon. Their pokemon liked their trainers. Why is this so confusing!?"_ Riley was screaming in his head.

Jenny eventually realized that it was probably for the best that he had been hit with the understanding that he could not always save everyone so early, instead of learning it in the field of battle. This way, he would be prepared for the future.

However, she had no excuse for doing this to him at first. It was simply a question that she asked new officers to discover why they would answer the question the way she did. Those that could not or would not give a reason why they chose what they did she did not allow into her police force. Each position required different qualifying questions, but this one…

Knowing that something good could have come of it, Jenny did feel better, but the guilt of doing this to the boy continuously slammed her in the chest as he stares suspiciously at the items in front of him.

* * *

"Do you think he's all right?" Yellow asked softly. Her own exam had taken mere minutes. Riley had been in there for far too long for her liking. The other pokemon, even Growlithe and Amber were picking up on her worries.

Amber peered at the door, wondering when they were going to come out. They could be waiting for a long time longer than they originally thought. Yellow had her hands in her lap, silently thinking.

" _The last question she asked me… She wanted to know why…"_

Remembering that question hurt Yellow as well. It had been very painful to talk about why she would save one over the others. Jenny was right when she said there was always an answer to that question, no matter how much one denied it.

What sort of reaction would Riley have to Jenny's true question? He was stoic most of the time, but he was clearly capable of emotions. The way he smiled at his little eevee friend was frankly the opposite of how he normally was. So he could be emotional, that much was clear.

Yellow had no doubt he would choose the pokemon. However, after meeting humans for the first time that he can properly remember… He would be ashamed knowing he would choose one over the other. He just knew pokemon better.

Just like Yellow does.

" _If he had a worse reaction than I had…"_

Now Yellow's mood was definitely obvious. The other pokemon began to worry. This was because Yellow rarely worried for no reason. Paranoia was not common with her.

Amber took to sitting nearby the door, thankfully far enough away as to not be hit by it. She listened inside. Yellow heard her think " _There's no noise at all…"_. Growlithe seemed to notice the same thing. It was utterly silent in that room.

* * *

Riley waited another twenty minutes. Then, anger at the test won out against his anger at himself. He would feel shame about this for a long time to come. He stood, prepared to walk right out.

"Stop" Jenny's voice commanded him. He had little idea as to why he listened to her. He had heard something different in her voice, but could not place it.

Riley turned, and Jenny found cold eyes on her. There was sadness as well.

"This question was intended to discover if someone could answer such a question **with** a reason. Your answer was easily the most detailed, not to mention heartfelt explanation I have ever heard, and for many points it is not unjustified for wild pokemon to dislike humans to put it lightly. You have earned these items through and through. my intention was not to cause this for you, as it is a question I ask every single future officer in this city" Jenny explained.

"Perhaps you should think of a new question" he snarled. He had little respect for authority. He really was not cut out for this job. However, He had earned it. His skill set was needed by the police. Riley was perfect for the job. If only he was not so disrespectful towards authority.

"Perhaps I should" Jenny admitted "There has never been such a response to this question as you have provided. Your reaction has alerted me to the error of asking such a personal question in an official meeting, no matter how much it works. However, I want you to take those things anyways. You are officially a member of not Viridian's police force, but the worldwide police force. Congratulations, Riley".

A secret authority, walking around with the other humans. A kid who was barely human in the first place. He was inhumanely strong and fast. The combat master that could take on human and pokemon alike with little difficulty.

Riley's scowl eventually died away. Jenny sounded sincere at least. "I can't pretend to be happy with you whatsoever. I disagree with your methods, and I detest that I was put through this… But I also know that this is the only legal way to do the job that was placed before me. For that reason only…" Riley said slowly, picking up his identification and badge and putting them on his belt.

After some hesitation, he picked up his fancy looking police tracking device and put it away. Officer Jenny knew he was going to just walk out. "Of you wanted, you could stay for a moment. You may not want your friends to see you like this" she offered.

Riley lightened up a bit, though that worry was still in his heart. "Oh, not to worry. They've obviously been eavesdropping" he said. Then, he pulled open the door to see Amber right there. The eevee looked worried about him.

Riley's smile brightened a bit. He held out his arms, and Amber jumped into them before jumping onto his shoulder.

Riley now pulled out his badge case and flips it open to reveal a rhombus shaped badge that was jet black except for white words. It read: 'Pokemon translator', and under that: 'Police department'.

"You got it, huh?" Amber asked as Riley snapped the case shut and put it back on his belt. "Yeah. I did." Riley said. Amber noticed his voice was a bit quieter than normal. "Aww, what's wrong, Riley?" she asked, worried for her new friend.

"Jus' a bit frustrated." Riley muttered under his breathe. Growlithe himself could barely hear it, and Amber only heard it at all because she was on his shoulder. What could they do to take his mind off of whatever the heck happened in there with all the fierceness they heard in that room?

Why, tease him of course.

"Come on, you. Cheer up, stinky human!" Amber said playfully, batting the boy's head. However, Riley scowled even deeper.

"Human. Yeah, that's what I am…" he muttered, starting to walk again. Amber's mistake was realized when he said this. He was not an avid fan of humans, after all. Perhaps it was to the point of wishing he was not one.

"Ok. I won't call you human. Cheer up, stinky!" Amber said into his ear. She said this quite loudly, and the others caught that one and laughed. Riley did begin to look up. His mood improved as his eevee friend teased him.

"Who's stinky?" he asked, picking up the eevee with his hands. Amber cursed herself for not leaping away as soon as her insult was out of her mouth. Riley feigned a disgusted face as he sniffed the air around Amber.

"I am most certainly **not** the stinky one." Riley retorted, joking around. Amber wiggled a bit in his hands, but his grip was unbreakable. "Perhaps we should give you a bath… Yellow, is there any place to clean this stinky little furball off?" Riley asked.

Amber really hoped that Yellow would take her side, but she was sorely disappointed. "Yeah, there are a few places" she said cheerfully. The other pokemon enjoyed Amber getting the payback she needed.

"I do **not** need a bath!" Amber protested while she listened to the others laugh, giggle, and chuckle. "Yes you do" Riley said and tucked Amber under his arm and started walking out the door. Yellow and the others followed.

"Let… Me…. Go!" Amber exclaimed while struggling. Riley chuckled to himself, the troubling thoughts in his head wiped away for just that moment. "Not a chance, stinky" he taunted.

Amber scratched, bit, and flailed, but nothing fazed the human. Riley's arm was actually quite bloody by that point with multiple wounds, but he was grinning like a maniac. Amber eventually stopped her attack, realizing it was pointless.

"After we give her a much needed bath, you're gonna need some bandages" Yellow said, looking at the wounds. Riley blinked. "Bandages?" he asked, unfamiliar with the term. Yellow sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Alright. Lesson time" she sighed.

* * *

"I wish you would let me go…" Amber muttered. Growlithe was looking at her. "You really asked for it, kid" he replied, now looking to Riley, who was holding the eevee down with one hand while Yellow bandaged his other arm having decided that the bleeding was too bad, not to mention conspicuous.

* * *

"This is just humiliating…" Amber said twenty minutes later as Riley used some supplies that Yellow had and was washing her thoroughly. She had done little more than complain for a while, being completely incapable of fighting back against the boy.

Five minutes later Amber was the cleanest eevee in the world. When Riley let her go, she just padded away slowly, defeated, and sat down with her back to the group. Yellow came up to Riley then. "You know, Amber **was** right. You don't exactly smell good. You should take a shower before we get on the road for pewter. That's about a five day walk" she said.

"...What's a shower?"

* * *

 **Me: That there was chapter five. Chapter six is prepared and needs to be proofread this week, so that should be out sometime this weekend or next Monday. As I said, TAC2 chapter five is also coming out today. I hope you enjoyed the chapter today, and have a nice week.**

 **Jango: Even if there was no excess of-**

 **Amber: Shut up, Jango. Nobody needs to know about you yet. One more book before you can talk freely.**

 **Jango: That's way to far away, Amber. Surely you understand of all people, being-**

 **Amber: You have to keep quiet about that too. We both do. And stop pretending that you can't do it.**

 **Jango *Sighs***

 **Me: Review, please! Follow if you like, and anything else you want to do. OC's for example; those are nice. I really appreciate those. Please send them to me via PM though!**

* * *

 **Name:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:**

 **Personality:**

 **Background (this may be lengthy):**

 **Unique Aspect (optional):**

 **Other:**


	6. Chapter Six: Berry Disaster

**Hey, everyone! This is Hyperjade. This is also chapter six of New Age!**

 **There are no reviews on chapter five, so let's go!**

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Berry Disaster**

"Now, I have to admit that the human race does have its merits once again," Riley stated, rubbing a towel through his soaked, flame-orange hair vigorously, "because showers are **awesome**."

"That's what I told you!" Yellow said happily as she watched television, her hair still damp from her shower nearly thirty minutes earlier. Riley had taken his time. She had indeed told Riley **just** how awesome a shower was, how incredible it was to feel like you're under a hot rain, and you come out clean as a whistle.

Needless to say, Riley certainly agreed with Yellow on the subject. He finished drying his hair. The two of them were in a hotel of sorts, with Yellow covering the cost. For whatever reason, she had a **lot** of money now. It was quite a nice place with two bedrooms and a shower, and everything, in general, looked nice.

Riley observed the town outside of the hotel window, remembering that they were on the eleventh floor. Such a tall building, and the humans treated it like it was nothing. Dialga's tower had been impressive enough (And looked **way** cooler), but these humans had skyscrapers everywhere. This particular skyscraper actually overlooked the smaller town below with the pokemon center and the pokemart, as well as the police office way below.

"You look so serious" Yellow commented, even though she was actually looking at her own pokemon talk to Growlithe. She was talking to Riley, who had his arms behind his back staring out the window. He was acting like a movie character and had no idea.

Amber laughed at that, despite knowing little about the implication of Riley's stance at the window. He did look rather serious from the back, where Yellow could see him, but Amber could see the expression on his face. The smirk and the flickering eyes. Riley was surveying the landscape as if preparing an escape plan.

"Nobody's going to attack, idiot" Amber insulted Riley cheerfully. They were in an incredibly safe building on a high floor with the strongest human ever to visit the town ever. After the show Riley put on against the rockets, it would be astonishing if anybody tried to get them again. It's not like they had trackers anymore.

"I'm not going to take any chances" Riley replied, no longer smiling "if anything were to happen to you or growlithe because I got careless, I would never forgive myself."

There was a bit of silence, besides the sounds of Growlithe roughhousing with Chuchu, who had initiated a wrestling match between the two of them. Gravvy went to join, but almost crushed the two others flat in the process.

Riley was not oblivious to the pokemon's playtime. In fact, he turned and smiled at the group as they played. He had the urge to play with them as he had done where he used to live, but he was in the presence of another human.

Yellow noticed his hesitation. "Did you think I would judge you for playing with pokemon or something?" She asked immediately "I mean, people play with pokemon all the time. They bond that way. It's normal".

"...Really?" Riley asked, thinking the girl was joking around with him.

"Really."

Riley went and greeted the pokemon, and then after noticing that Gravvy was feeling a little left out because his roughhousing would crush the others flat, Riley allowed the golem to wrestle with him instead. That Riley could do that without mortal injury once again surprised the others.

As Riley and Gravvy compared strength, it was clear that Gravvy actually had an advantage over the human though the human was holding his own quite well. "Not so invincible after all, huh?" Amber asked, earning herself a noogie from Riley, who had grabbed her. "Invincible enough to keep your tiny ass alive" he taunted.

While Amber batted at him, Riley pushed Gravvy aside and rolling the rock type straight into the others, who yelped in pain. Gravvy started rapidly apologizing to the twitching growlithe and pikachu while Amber tried to get away from Riley.

"Ah ah ah! Not a chance!" Riley exclaimed, taking some words out of the mouth of a kangaskhan he knew back in the forest. he was giving Amber a fierce noogie, which she was yelping and thrashing about.

"Careful! You'll actually hurt her!" Yellow exclaimed, noticing the apparent pain in Amber's eyes. Riley let go of the eevee, who shot away in an instant. "Nah, that kid's got a thick skull" Riley responded, looking towards where the eevee had hidden in a cupboard.

"Gotcha!" Riley cheerfully exclaimed as he darted in and lifted Amber up by the shoulders. He pulled her into one of his crushing hugs.

"Ow…" Amber muttered, feeling as if her bones were nearing the breaking point. They weren't actually anywhere near that point, but it hurt, dang it.

Now Riley was hugging Amber as well as giving her a fierce noogie, all while the eevee complained about it. By the time Riley let her go for good, her fur was beyond messy. She looked like an adorable puffball with messy head fur.

At which point Yellow decided to pick her up and cuddle her. Amber was fearful for a moment before realizing that Yellow was **much** more gentle. Then, Amber snuggled up against Yellow. "Maybe I should stick around **you** ," Amber said warmly. Yellow shook her head.

"Riley can protect you better. Besides, I'm willing to bet he can be gentle if he really wants to. He just doesn't want to. Maybe you should fix that" Yellow whispered to Amber. The little eevee looked up at Yellow, bewilderment in her eyes. Such a good idea, but could it actually work?

" _How would I do that?"_ Amber hesitantly asked Yellow with her mind. She did not know if that girl could read her thoughts perfectly, and not only did she want to get on better terms with Riley, but she was testing Yellow as well.

"Well, you could start by being nicer to him" Yellow responded immediately. Amber scoffed at this. " _Not a chance. Besides, he does the same to me"_ Amber thought at Yellow, pouring the general expression for _nope_ into her mind.

Yellow laughed at this, amused by Amber's shenanigans. The girl put the eevee down and stood up. She stretched, which caused Riley to turn away. There were no feelings between the two of them, but it still felt awkward to Riley. Once again, Amber called him out on his blushing. This earned her another crushing hug about her being the cute one.

"So Amber calls you cute when you blush, and you retaliate by making her take it back… Why do you do that, Amber?" Growlithe asked. Amber gave the equivalent to a shrug and was dropped out of Riley's arms after being coerced into admitting she was cute.

Yellow interrupted the conversation, realizing that tomorrow the group would be heading out to the viridian forest once more, to get to pewter city. "We're off to Pewter City tomorrow, so we ought to get some sleep" Yellow reasoned to the group, who stopped everything to listen to her. Her pokemon all nodded and went to get some sleep. The sun was in fact setting, as Riley noted.

"You're in the other room" Yellow said, pointing to the other door. She looked a bit more serious, but there was still a smile. She wanted a reaction from the boy. She expected him to object to a member of the opposite gender taking complete charge. However, she was not disappointed by the fact that he did not. One more test passed. Unless some dominant girl tries to impress on him. Ups and downs.

Riley walked into his room, with Amber following him. Growlithe nodded to Yellow and her pokemon before doing the same. When the three were gone, Yellow turned to her pokemon. "Would you guys like to sleep in your pokeballs or out? the girl asked.

Gravvy and Dody wanted to sleep in his pokeball, but the others were content to stay out. Yellow pulled the covers of her **extremely** comfy bed over her and whispered a good night to the others. Riley, in his room, gathered Amber in his arms and began to fall asleep. Amber found herself doing the same. Growlithe stood guard for just a little while. He was going to do so for longer, but he realized he was actually very tired. In fact, he did not notice at all. He just kind of flopped onto the ground and fell asleep.

(LINE BREAK)

In most cases, hotels get loud in the morning. This one? Not at all. The calm silence greeted the two adventurers as they woke up, just as Riley was used to living in the forest, and Yellow as used to, being able to afford things like quiet hotels.

Riley gathered his stuff together, but decided on another shower before going. It just felt really good to be under the hot water like that. Plus, he had some dust on him after wrestling with Gravvy.

When both were ready to go, and the pokemon were up and ready to move, Yellow led the way out of the room. Riley had opted to take the stairs the first time, not willing to get into the cramped elevator. This time however, he decided to stick it out and discover whether it was actually bad.

Turns out he was a bit claustrophobic after living his entire life in large expanses.

However, the trouble was only slight, and Riley got himself out of that thing with little panic. The woman at the register smiled at the two humans, absolutely getting the wrong idea about why the two of them had a room together. **with nobody else**.

The receptionist saw the smile on the teens' faces and hoped that they had put their pokemon in the other room beforehand.

Yellow saw the look out of the corner of her eye. "Not even close," She said, tossing the woman the exact amount she needed to pay in bills over her shoulder before walking out the door with Riley in town.

"What's not even close?" Riley asked cluelessly. Yellow giggled loudly. "Oh, you know, the thing you're apparently too young for. Silly receptionist. Now, we had better got a move on to Pewter City, which is to the north of here and through the viridian forest. In the job positions we're in, we ought to be travelling across the region periodically. I assume you know how to contact people, else i'll have to teach you how to use the phone I slipped into your pocket when you weren't looking" Yellow said.

"Uh… I'm too young for what? And… Phone?" Riley asked. Once again, Yellow giggled at the boy's cluelessness. "The phone is a device to call people. Most trainers have an extranciever or a pokenav that can use the call function, but you and I have a phone that can do a lot more than that. That's a police grade informational phone that can call people, specifically the nearest police office, pokemon center, me, that one other kid with this position (though I haven't a clue why you'd want to call **him** ), as well as a few others. I included Oak's number and Delia's as well" Yellow explained.

Riley looked at the machine he now held in his hand. The item was a little black and blue rectangle with buttons on the side and top, and a black screen on the front. It looked very sturdy. When Riley pressed a button, the screen lit up. "You just changed the volume" Yellow noted, looking over Riley's shoulder at the device.

As Riley fiddled with the buttons and learned both what the buttons did and what several symbols meant, the pair of humans and the pokemon walking with them began to leave the city behind. They were already making good time.

Then, the group passed a big building with GYM written on it. "What's this?" Riley asked, distracted from his phone. Yellow looked at it. "Oh, that's the pokemon gym. To earn their way to some place called the pokemon league, trainers have to beat the owner of eight gyms. This is one of them. The gym leader isn't home either; look at the 'temporarily closed' sign" she explained.

Riley took that information in silence.

"Soooo… **this** button does this…" Riley said five minutes later, touching the screen, and the phone began to sing a little tune, just as Yellow's did two seconds later.

"That's the call function" Yellow explained, turning off the call with a touch of her own, black and yellow (obviously) phone. Riley was wincing at the noise the phone was making. Yellow noticed and quickly showed him how to change the ringtone to something more Riley's style.

"Aaaand there we go!" yellow exclaimed as she finally decided on something. A wordless song burst through the small speaker of the phone with drums and some guitar. Rock music. Riley twitched a bit.

"Never heard anything like it, but I think it can grow on me" He said. Growlithe had to remind the boy to say thanks, which Riley immediately did. He looked rather embarrassed. Yellow assured him it was fine, and that anybody who knew he lived his life with pokemon would understand the situation.

"Besides, adults practically **expect** teens to behave like that. If they don't, the silly people get all surprised" Yellow giggled. Riley seemed to think about that for a moment. "So… If I ever needed to infiltrate a location, adults would expect me to act like that, and…

"Why oh why do you turn every conversation into a battle strategy?" Yellow interrupted, now getting a little tired of it.

"Those rocket people must have a lot of influence to still be at large in this region, right? I can't expect things to go well, can i? If i'm full of optimism, I could be badly startled by an attack and… lose somebody" Riley replied. Near the end, he sounded like he was in some sort of pain.

"Riley" Growlithe began from where he was padding along near the boy "We no longer have trackers. The criminals have no reason to be involved with us. Yes, they may steal pokemon on a regular basis, but no one will specifically come after us without us having some warning at least."

"And if a scout recognizes us?" Riley asked stubbornly.

"Then you kick their stupid asses into next week!" Amber cried out, raising her front paws while balanced on Riley's shoulder and smacks the toes of one paw into her other pad to simulate a fist in the palm.

Riley actually seemed to relax at this. "Sure. Okay, I bet i'm stressing you guys out. When we get attacked…" He said, his voice dropping at the end while he mimicked Amber's expression with his fist and palm. Amber gave a small cheer.

Yellow observed the warmongering duo. How they would have made a great trainer and pokemon, but the situation denied such a possibility. Riley would tear through any enemies like butter, and the others knew it.

"What will you do if a trainer challenges you?" yellow suddenly asked. Riley glanced towards her, a confused expression on his face. Yellow recalled the fact that he had no idea how pokemon training worked.

"Okay, so pokemon trainers train their pokemon to fight, and then they use those pokemon to battle" Yellow said, and seeing the boy's new expression, she hurriedly added: "But that seems to create a bond between humans and pokemon as long as they're nice to each other! Okay… Now that we're calm… Trainers battle against each other. You look mostly like a trainer. What do you do when somebody challenges you?" She asked.

Riley looked up at the sky for a moment. "Probably would fight myself. I can take a pokemon. Bonding experience, really?" he asked.

"Many trainers have excellent relationships with their pokemon" Yellow explained "I'm a pokemon trainer, after all."

Riley looked at her weirdly, but he just nodded. Honestly, that boy had no idea what was going on around him. Yellow reflected on the boy's cluelessness to the human way of life. From his standpoint, it made sense. Other people without knowledge of his past would think he was either stupid or faking his uninformed self.

So that became the discussion for the next while. The trip through the forest would be filled with bug catcher trainers itching for a fight and would be a three day's walk. Still a small amount compared to most, but it was still more than the transition from Pallet to Viridian.

The forest itself was looming ahead of us, and Riley seemed rather excited. To be honest, so was Yellow. She had a special connection to this place, and so did Riley. The pokemon here were the friends of both.

" _Which makes me wonder why I have never heard of Riley before I met him…"_ Yellow thought to herself. Surely the pokemon would have mentioned that she was not the only one around… In fact, it never came up in their thoughts. Maybe they had just talked to different pokemon during their childhood.

That would have been quite the series of coincidences.

"Is that gym often closed?" Riley asked suddenly, distracting himself from the current conversation as if he was tired of it. Yellow seemed to ponder. "Well, it used to be empty all of the time. After giovanni was taken out as the leader of the gym, my friend blue took over the gym for a while. Now that he's travelling in the Aertos region, he's entrusted the gym to… someone else. She's not in Viridian at the moment" she said.

"Whoever this is, that sounds like a big position" Riley mused to himself.

"Yeah, they're actually involved with the police. When things get really bad, they're called on to help fight against whatever is happening. Usually they're only called for really bad things like if team rocket actually went on a murderous rampage or something." Yellow said. The bluntness of her words surprised Riley. Yellow often seemed sweet and kind, but it was now clear she had to have seen some brutal fights before to not stutter at the word 'murder'.

What was going on inside that girl's head? Riley had no clue. Girls were weird. Especially human ones. Female pokemon tended to make sense once in a while, but…

Riley smirked as he thought that. What a typical thing to think. " _Maybe I should watch more movies. Or less."_ Riley thought before laughing to himself.

"Hey!" Yellow exclaimed five minutes later, seeing branch in the path. "This should take us to a berry grotto. That's what they're called anyways. They're actually more like orchards, but what **ever**. We can stock up on berries" Yellow explained, immediately turning left. Riley obediently followed the girl as they began to travel west.

Amber got into a scuffle with Riley on the way, just for the fun of it really. Batting ar Riley's face once too often, she elicited a reaction from the boy and this involved being grabbled with one arm and tickled to submission in his other arm.

"Sto-o-o-o-p it! That's-hahaha! No! Qui-it it!" Amber squealed, and after several more minutes of this torment, Riley put her back on his shoulder where she panted heavily, trying to get her breath back.

Growlithe smirked at this. They were both still kids. One had never lost anything, and the other had things for the first time. Amber, who had suffered torment, torture, and experimentation for most of her life, and Riley, who had lived most of his life where problems were much less common.

" _Neither have lost their families, at least not in front of their eyes…"_ Growlithe thought, accidentally thinking about his own past. he shook that away. He had no time to grieve anymore. he had grieved for three years. Now he had another group of people to protect.

Even that little playtime the other night had felt somehow **wrong** to Growlithe. Memories flashed across his mind; memories that were better left forgotten. Now Growlithe was sweating, experiencing these flashes. That was until two strong arms scooped him up.

"Growlithe… What's wrong?" The kind voice of Riley reached Growlithe's ears. The warmth the boy had in his arms and chest were of a different sort than Growlithe's internal flame. he was warmed ever more by it. Growlithe's locked memories faded back away and allowed the dog to relax.

"It's… Nothing. Growlithe lied softly. Riley's arms squeezed softly. Riley knew the fire dog was lying, but he understood that it was something painful for him. "If you ever need somebody to talk to, we're all here for you Growlithe." Riley replied softly.

As Riley comforted Growlithe, the dog felt himself falling asleep in Riley's arms. He tried to stay awake, but to no avail. Riley watched with slight amusement and a caring mindset as the pokemon fell asleep in his arms.

The smile on Riley's face lasted until they got to the orchard.

"...What **happened** here!?" Riley exclaimed, looking at what was apparently a war zone. Yellow was thoroughly shocked as well. The grotto looked **destroyed**. Devoid of humans, there were a few pokemon milling about and salvaging some berries, but it looked like most had been taken and bashed against the ground.

Riley approached one of the pokemon, who shed away from him with fear in her eyes. "It's all right. What is your name?" Riley asked the pokemon. Said pokemon gave no answer, instead turned to run.

"hang on a second! I'm sure you've heard of me! Name's Riley! I've lived in this forest for years with only pokemon!" Riley exclaimed desperately. That last bit caught the pokemon's attention, who glanced at him with disbelief in her eyes.

"He's telling the truth, little one" Yellow soothed the pokemon, reading her thoughts. The being in question turned her big eyes to the girl. " _Y-yellow? Is that you?"_ Yellow heard the pokemon think. It must have been a while since she had seen this particular pikachu.

In fact, most of the pokemon trying to salvage food right now were pikachu. They were trying to gather berries frantically, trying to increase their food source before it was too late. Many had too much to hold in their little yellow paws.

"Yes, little one. It's me" yellow replied. Riley was confused at this, but he remembered Yellow's mind reading abilities. As he reveled in this, Yellow was encouraging the young pokemon to greet Riley.

"W-who are you?" the pikachu asked. Riley immediately broke off his train of thought to get as close to Pikachu's level without lying on his stomach. "My name is Riley. I've lived around pokemon most of my life, and I understand them. I'm not like yellow; I can't read minds. But I hear you as if you are speaking human" Riley explained.

With the pokemon's bewildered eyes on the boy, Riley looked about. After taking in the entire scene once more, he turned back to the pikachu. "Can you tell me what happened here?" Riley inquired.

One of the other pikachu, having overheard the conversation and seemed to be much more hotheaded than the others, shouted out from where he was picking up sitrus berries: "Those team rocket assholes tried to capture the lot of us! They destroyed this place in the process!"

Yellow noticed that Riley had gone stiff. "Team rocket?" he growled angrily. His grip clenched tighter on his staff, which he had in his hand this entire time and had been using as a walking stick. The new look in his eyes scared the pikachu in front of them until Riley made a promise.

Riley met Yellow's eyes, and the girl understood what he was going to say before he said it. The resolve in his eyes was complete. "I will stay here for the time being. When these pitiful human beings return, I'll be there to stop them" he promised the group.

Most were still afraid, not knowing what the human was capable of. It just looked like he was a trainer that had a growlithe and an eevee in his possession. What good was this human for them?

Most turned to Yellow for confirmation, and seeing the girl nod was a surprise to most. They knew this girl, but they did not know Riley? Yellow was very curious. "Why don't they know you?" Yellow quizzed Riley.

"Having lived in a remote place that's **connected** to this forest, not in it, I spend more of my time there than anything else" Riley replied "I have met very few pikachus, actually."

Yellow was unsure of how to respond. responding with 'ooooohhhh...' did not seem to cut it, so Yellow stayed silent and just nodded. Suddenly, a peculiar raichu with zigzagging stripes on his back instead of straight stripes ran into view. A raichu Riley recognized as a pikachu he had once known.

"It's you! It's been years!" the raichu exclaimed, and Yellow felt a lot of loving energy coming from the male raichu. She saw Riley scratch the little guy's ears, causing the raichu to make a squeak of contentment. "Yeah, it **has** been a while, hasn't it?" Riley responded.

This sealed the deal with the other pikachu. Yellow detected thoughts about how this raichu would **never** trust a human, and that this one and Riley seemed to know and trust each other, that said a lot.

Eventually, Riley greeted each and every pokemon in the area. Except for one. There were very few pichus around, but one of them was hiding. She was shy, as Yellow could tell from her thoughts. The little pichu hid behind one of the berry trees, clearly not wanting to come closer.

Riley had no clue the pokemon was there, but he was unconcerned. Tear rocket would be back, and they would be smashed apart with ease. Nobody did this to pokemon and got away with it. Maybe the damage to the food supply was an accident, maybe not. The point was: it would never happen again. Not on Riley's watch.

While Riley had his reunion with the raichu, and Yellow was keeping tabs on the thoughts of the others, Amber had jumped off of Riley's shoulder to greet some of the pokemon. "What's up" Amber inquired cheerfully as she approached the larger group of pikachu.

They looked at her warily, as if afraid or something. Amber noticed this and decided to sit down. That would make her appear less threatening. Eventually, the younger pichu's came to Amber. The young eevee looked down at them, feeling a little smile curl her lip. They were just such adorable little kids. No matter that she was just a slightly older kid.

"Hey, little guys!" Amber greeted cheerfully, but she saw that the little pichus were leaning really close to her. She was apprehensive, but they just whispered a question: "What's it like being a trainer's pokemon?"

Amber blinked before answering. "Oh? He's not my trainer. He's not a trainer at all, acually. We just stick around him. Y'know, cause he's super strong and good at protecting us" Amber answered, before leaning in towards the pokemon. "Don't you dare tell him I said this, but he's a great friend too. He's nice. He's a really good guy, but it's fun to tease him, so don't let him know I consider him a friend, okay?" she whispered.

The little ones grinned at that and promised rapidly that they would never ever **ever** tell anybody about that. As the group of pokemon giggled together, Yellow was giggling as well. She had known of course how much Amber considered Riley a friend.

Riley noticed all the giggling this time, somehow not being the oblivious boy he tended to be recently. However, he just raised an amused eyebrow at Yellow and then Amber. The two girls met each other's eyes and burst out laughing.

After some time to have fun and talk, Riley twirled his staff in his hand and leaned against a tree, viewing the entrance from the most inconspicuous point possible. He just watched, and the others seemed to be content to let him. Raichu joined him, though he was up in the tree leaves.

"They **will** be back. After Red and Ash both went about with extremely powerful pikachus, this species has become pretty valuable by human standards if trained properly." Yellow asserted, having released her pokemon to stand guard along the border. She was talking to Riley of course, who nodded without a word.

" _They_ _ **will**_ _be back"_ echoed within Riley's head as he stared straight down the path. If any of these losers came along, they would never be back again. They would run off, tails between their legs. Riley would make sure of it.

They waited for several hours, until it was past midday. Riley was becoming impatient. He wanted to **Hit** something. He wanted to beat the crap out of somebody, and he was willing to turn that anger towards those who deserved it.

He spoke to the pokemon quietly as he watched, and got to know them. Eventually, the discussion turned to some of the lost pokemon. Riley learned that not all of the missing pokemon were captured by team rocket. Apparently a year ago there had been a hypno loose in the forest that was kidnapping young pokemon. Riley had had an experience with a hypno once, though he escaped capture by putting his staff in the way. Whatever metal the weapon was built out of, it absorbed the psychic waves and rendered Riley unharmed.

Several children had been abducted and never seen again until the group tracked down and killed the hypno. The children were never found.

There was the son of the more aggravated pikachu, who had apparently gotten like that when they had lost their kid.

There was a daughter of another pair of pikachu that showed great promise as a defender of their little group, knowing volt tackle and some other powerful attacks.

And there was a pichu with strange colors that also disappeared because of this hypno's hand. It was for the best that the sadistic beast had been killed, or else many others would have disappeared.

Riley felt a weight settle on his form. The actions of this hypno… They sounded like the stories of humans abducting pokemon from their homes, except these kids… They had no chance of returning. They were likely dead.

"There was one more child that disappeared, even though it wasn't exactly Hypno's fault…" somebody murmured behind Riley, earning the speaker several quick shushes. This moved Riley's attention away from the situation.

"Who was this child?" Yellow inquired before Riley could. The entire group of travelers was curious as to the whereabouts of this last pichu. The pikachu began to deny that anything had been said; something incredibly suspicious.

One look from Riley told the group that none of them believed the pikachu family. They seemed frightened and… guilty?

Raichu was the one to speak from where he had been sitting at the top of the tree. "A friend of that strangely colored pichu. After that little one disappeared, the one we're talking about ran off for a bit. She came back with a few changes. Her ear had some spikes on it, and she was claiming something about meeting Celebi." he said.

The group started talking, and Yellow read some individual thoughts. The pikachu group was playing the situation down. Apparently this pichu had never been popular in their family, and after the incident where she had apparently met Celebi, she had constantly annoyed the others with her constant blabbering about it, trying to make them believe what was apparently so **preposterous** that there was no way it was true.

Thus, she had eventually been… Kicked out!?

Chuchu and the rest of Yellow's pokemon caught a flash of actual anger fly across Yellow's face, and they shuddered. This rarely happened, and the result was always different. Whatever she was picking up from the pikachu family, she did not like it in the slightest.

Yellow raised her hand sharply, cutting off the conversation quickly. These pikachu had met Yellow before, but never angry. They too wondered what was going to happen, forgetting for the time that she could read minds.

"You… Didn't like this pichu because she was different?" Yellow almost growled. Riley shuddered in reaction. Anger was new for her. She frightened him like that. Amber and Growlithe recoiled a bit as well.

Yellow detected the multitude of thoughts from the group, and pieced the puzzle together. There was plenty of shame at that. "We… got angry at her eventually, and basically told her to leave… I thought she would be back by now, but she never showed up again." somebody in the crowd explained.

And then Yellow understood. They had said things the wrong way, and the little pichu had taken it to heart, leaving and not coming back. She grew less angry, but she knew this was not a way pokemon should behave. Family was incredibly important, and these pokemon had forgotten that.

"What is going on here?" Riley demanded, not catching the drift of the conversation. However, he had caught on to the fact that a pichu had been basically disowned, no matter how much regret the others expressed. The pikachu horde noticed a newfound anger in his eyes, and even though it was not as violent as his anger towards team rocket, it still scared them.

"Riley…" Yellow said, now calmer "We might be able to find Pichu later. Let's focus on team rocket right now, and maybe we can bring Pichu back afterwards. This could be a learning experience for them" she reasoned.

Riley stared at Yellow, astounded by her ability to forgive. She had seemed angry before, but she seemed fine now. Her pokemon were sighing with relief. At this call, Riley started to feel like forgiving the pokemon as well.

Perhaps it was because he had to learn from Yellow how to treat humans properly, and she had become very influential for him. Maybe that was a good thing, but Riley still had some trouble forgiving them. Maybe when this pichu was found.

LINE BREAK

"Get it!"

The small yellow mouse ran for her life, trying to escape the men in black and red clothing. Those men were trying to capture her.

"Don't let it get away! That thing's gonna be worth a lot of money with that ear!" another human shouted.

" _I won't get captured. Not like my friend!"_ the pichu thought frantically as she darted through the trees. She was near her old home, but what did it matter? They didn't want her around. Why would she go back? Not only that, but she might get others trapped in the process.

" _I… Can't do that to them"_ the pichu thought as she quickly turned to avoid an attack " _They're my family… But they don't like me. They won't listen to me."_ she thought, but tried to dismiss the thought. No, she would not endanger them.

But she still needed to escape. she needed to get somewhere where she could get past these humans. They were still shouting to one another, saying something about money that could come from selling a pichu with a rare trait like hers.

Why she had to have three spikes on her ears, she had no clue. That Celebi had been annoying to say the least, but it was apparently quite an honor. But the pichu had nobody that would believe her. Her old friend would have, but he was likely dead.

The thought almost made her lose her concentration and run into a tree. That would have cost her her freedom in an instant. At it was, she wound up dodging a few pokeballs that were bouncing nearby her.

She had lost her sense of direction in the chase, having gone around in circles. That was when she burst into a clearing she recognized.

A clearing full of pikachu.

The rockets came through the trees, backing the pichu up to another berry tree. A tree that was obviously destroyed. She looked about fearfully to see that most of the area was broken apart. A war zone.

And it suddenly was again. Something blurred by and the man in the front was sent spinning back, crying out in pain. the pichu took her chance to run away. Far away from the others, far away from who used to be her family.

"Chuchu! Keep an eye on that pichu! We can handle this!" Yellow shouted, having realized just who had been chased out of the woods. Maybe that whole thing could be solved at some point. Her pokemon lunged into battle besides her pikachu, who took what she said to heart and ran off in pursuit of the pokemon.

"Capture as many of the pikachu as you can!" one rocket leader shouted, completely oblivious to what had gone down between that blur and the lead grunt.

Speaking of that particular blur…

Riley was beating the crap out of a few humans on the other side of the horde, their cries of pain attracting attention. A few of them had been from the larger group before, and they recognized the kid.

"Shit! It's the freak!" several shouted, the first one to do so was silenced by a metal staff slamming into his skull and knocking him unconscious in an instant. Such a thing could have caused brain damage.

The rockets' eyes widened in unison as they realized who was taking them apart, and released their pokemon to attack. "Take him out!" the leader shouted, and every rocket and enemy pokemon leaped to attack Riley.

Riley ignored the pokemon, instead going for the team rocket members. This confused the pokemon in their ruthless attack, realizing he was just avoiding them entirely. He had no time to give his little preposition to the pokemon around.

So he decided to do it later. Pretty soon, the rockets began to dog-pile on him. He took out most of them with careful yet powerful strikes, and a few juggling tricks with the rocket grunts that resulted in Riley using them as bowling balls, scoring a strike every time.

"Get out of here, Amber!" Riley shouted as he started to get overwhelmed by sheer numbers and the fact that he was avoiding the most dangerous adversaries completely; the pokemon.

Amber complied, realizing Riley was about to be overrun. She felt fear for her friend, but she jumped off of his shoulder and darted away.

"Get that eevee! They're worth a lot of money!" one of the remaining grunts shouted while they did battle with Yellow.

Amber tried. She really tried to access the power she had heard of in her dream. That freaky hybrid shadow… She had lunged at Amber and spoke of power. Amber felt nothing within her. She wanted to believe she could help, but she was a pathetic little eevee, and she had lost her ability to evolve due to the horrible experiments she had endured.

There was no power there, and Amber had to run away as fast as she could from the now pursuing pokemon. Growlithe skidded in the way. He glared at the pokemon, letting his intimidate ability roll out into the hearts of the pokemon in front of them.

As they slowed down and their physical capabilities were drained, growlithe let out a massive roar attack. Every pokemon charging Amber and Growlithe were blasted away from them and landed in a big pile. Any that remained suddenly fell asleep after getting a blast from Kitty's sleep powder.

And then something spectacular happened.

As everyone rushed to the pile of humans to try and get Riley out of there safe and sound, they heard a roar from within, the kind of roar a human could be capable of making. Then, a bunch of the other rocket members were flung away by Riley, who was now standing over a broken pile of team rocket members, who attempted to untangle themselves.

Riley proceeded to whack most of the remaining enemies casually with his staff and knocking them out really quick. He did avoid killing any of them, but they would all be in some trouble with the police. One grunt remaining awake, Riley grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him out of the pile with his free hand.

"Hi" Riley deadpanned, making the grunt quiver with fear. Riley decided to poke the man in the face with the heavy end of his staff, making the man wet himself as he feared being taken out just like the others.

"Care to tell me why you thought it'd be a good idea to try and harm pokemon and their habitat while **I** am around? I mean, you definitely knew about me, right?" Riley enquired. Amber clambered onto his shoulder and stuck her tongue at the man.

But her appearance was a mistake. The man zeroed in on her necklace. he gasped. "You're- You're that eevee that got away!" He shouted, and tried to grab Amber with his hands.

"Big mistake!" Riley roared, slamming the man in the forehead with his staff with the speed and power of a sceptile. He went limp in Riley's hand. The boy threw him away and searched for other awake grunts.

"You're still standing in a pile of people, Riley" Yellow brought up, recalling her pokemon as she did so. The fighting had stopped as the pokemon realized their trainers were all down for the count without much of a fight.

Riley looked down at the unconscious grunts. "Oh, yeah I am." He admitted, noting how frightening he must look like that. It was fun to appear scary sometimes, but this time there was a crowd of pikachu that were looking fearfully at the kid.

As Riley jumped out, he started taking a look at the new carnage. It was not nearly as bad as before, though a few poison stings had gotten lodged in one of the busted berry trees. Then, he looked at the pokemon. Every single grunt that had pokemon had sent them out, so there were no pokeballs that were full. Yellow confirmed this by trying to sense pokemon thoughts from the pile of humans.

"So… You guys have the same choice I gave to the other pokemon that stick around team rocket. You can be free, you can stay with them, though I can't imagine why, or we could work out an alternative" Riley said as he walked away from the grunts. "hey, Yellow, could you call officer jenny again?" Riley suddenly asked.

"Why don't you try out your new phone?" Yellow shot back, tending to a few scratches on Dody, who had been surprised by an ekans after running over some other pokemon. Such a shame that snake pokemon were fast. Yellow found no signs of poison at all, which was lucky. Poison sting had a decent chance to poison the opponent after all.

Many pokemon were in a stunned silence at Riley's proposition. Riley was fumbling with his fancy phone and using its touch screen to use the phone tool. After Riley got the thing ringing, he set it against his ear. Jenny picked up at once.

"Oh! This thing **is** working!" Riley first exclaimed. Then, he frowned. "No, it's not a social call. Team rocket. Destroyed berry orchard, slightly traumatized pikachu family, though I admit to being slightly responsible for that. First left on the road from viridian. Really, it took us barely any time to get here, so your freaky driving device should do fine… All right. We'll wait for you."

Riley looked at the phone weirdly, trying to figure out which button ended the call, but Jenny was the one to hang up. the boy shrugged and put the phone away in his pocket. He decided to figure out how to end calls later.

"So we just wait?" Riley asked, already shifting impatiently, just as Amber was doing. Yellow and Growlithe noted just how alike the two were at this point. Yellow decided to relieve some of the nervous energy bursting in the two of them, despite Riley having been in a battle already.

"...Why don't you two go and find that pichu who was here just earlier?" yellow offered, and Riley's eyes lit up before he realized something. He looked down at the grunts. "What will I do about these blokes? Somebody has to keep them out of it" Riley asked.

"Oh, i'm sure we can handle a few boys" Yellow teased, eliciting a laugh from amber and her female pokemon. There were only two girls in the pack of team rocket members, something nobody had bothered to notice in the carnage.

As Amber heartily agreed with Yellow's statement, Riley turned to rush off and find this pichu. Raichu waved him off, watching as Amber and Riley leaped to find the missing pichu. The other pikachu were just as shocked as the team rocket pokemon, rooted in place and looking at the defeated humans.

And so Yellow began to relay the information the rocket pokemon had been given and the choice they had. As they did so, Riley was crashing through the branches.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow ow!" Amber yelped as she was whacked by several branches in the much denser trees. Riley had some scrapes, but otherwise he was fine.

"Sorry" he muttered, dropping to the ground and darting about again. Amber shrieked a few choice words at him that Delia would have washed her mouth with soap for, but Riley was too busy to pay attention. His charge was to stay on his shoulder and be out of danger.

Amber still had her mind on that dream of hers. What the heck had that beast been, and why had it talked about power? Having been experimented on by team rocket, there had been a rare moment of 'peace' as they tried to use different methods to make her evolve. As they apparently intended, none of the evolutionary stones worked. No other method seemed to do the trick. They gave her a freaky drug that made her incredibly happy; one during the day and one during the night. Neither times had she evolved, and after each drug wore off it was accompanied by a crushing depression that she had tried to sleep off.

It wasn't as if there was a chance for her to sleep well, however. That particular night there had simply been less screaming and more blood in the recurring dream she had been set with.

And even that had been caused by a test. A very early test they tried, that she could not even remember properly. Amber just knew that that was the last time she had slept well. Well, until she met Riley, and he had stopped her nightmares as long as he had her in his arms. Such a thing Amber did not understand, but she was content to let it be. She was able to sleep after all, and being gently squeezed by Riley did feel comforting.

Not only that, but beyond anything she could have expected, Riley was very similar to her. For that reason, they had become the best of friends. Even though neither of the two would admit it to one another, their bickering was done in the most friendly way possible.

"That pichu has to be nearby. she's a small little guy" Riley commented.

"Yeah, but I bet'cha she's faster than you!" Amber teased without anything to back up her argument. She knew Riley couldn't do anything right now.

Riley chuckled as he darted through the dense forest. "Oh, when we get back... " he said, fulling intending to crush her in a hug, noogie her until she pleaded mercy, and almost tickle her to death. Amber knew what he meant, and her ears flattened. He was **scheduling** her torture.

" _I guess I deserve it…"_ Amber accepted in her mind as Riley realized he was getting too far for the pichu to have run off to and bounced off of a tree to go in a different direction.

Riley's position allowed Amber to sit almost comfortably on his shoulder while he ran, but that bounce had Amber hanging on for dear life. She screeched as she stabbed her small claws into the boy's shirt and held on. If Riley felt anything, he said nothing.

The pichu in question had already gone and ran, but she was slowing down. She could no longer hear the fighting. She still moved, because she was trying to get away from the clearing where her would be family lived.

She believed seeing them had been a mistake. She felt pain again, pain of losing them by insisting the truth. She remembered the green time travel pokemon of legend that was barely bigger than her. She remembered falling asleep after the small time traveler had said a few words and then giggled, waking up feeling really weird and… changed. Along with having spikes on her ear, her electricity seemed to flow differently. A very small difference, but a difference nonetheless.

But insisting that it had happened got her nothing but scorn, and so she left. It was incredibly painful to think about. Thankfully, she was distracted by a sound she could now hear.

Footsteps. Fast footsteps.

the pichu began to run away, and after a minute, the silence came around again abruptly. maybe the chaser had given up and stopped?

 **Wham…**

Something very big had landed in front of the pichu. It had human clothes on, and a now familiar silver staff. There was an eevee on his shoulders, and a stupid grin on his face. "Hi!" he cheerfully greeted the poor afraid pichu.

Frozen in fear, the pichu realized that this boy was picking her up. Riley held her gently. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just thought you'd like to see your family" he said. This caused the pichu to strangely squirm and try to get away, confusing Riley greatly.

"Uh… Didn't those pikachu basically disown her?" Amber whispered very quietly in Riley's ear, attempting to be helpful. Riley's confused frown turned into a proper frown.

He looked into the terrified pokemon's eyes, and after a quick decision, pulled her into a warm hug. "It's all right, kid. It's all right. Nobody's gonna hurt you, I promise. Now… What's your name?" Riley inquired, viewing the pichu as he held her away from him again.

The warmth of his embrace and his surprisingly gentle words began to calm the terrified electric mouse and allowed her to be capable of rational thought. "M-my name is Scarlet…" she stammered, recalling the name she had been given long ago. She had almost changed it after basically being kicked out, but… she hadn't.

Scarlet and Amber met eyes, both trying to figure out the other, though Scarlet was still slightly afraid and Amber was a bit more curious. Riley looked Scarlet in the eyes, unnerving her.

"Do you not want to go back and see your family? I get that they disowned you, but they seem to be regretting that a lot. Yellow told me so." Riley offered.

"Yellow? You know yellow?" Scarlet asked. There had been some stories about the girl who had lived in the forest for a time. She had been too young to remember her last visit. Upon Riley's nod, she realized the human understood her.

"Y-you can-"

"i can understand you, yes" Riley interrupted, not wanting to go through that again. Besides, his original plan for an introduction had already been tested, and apparently, according to Amber, it was terrible.

" _I need a better introduction…"_ Riley thought to himself. Scarlet was less scared of the human, but he acted really weird. His head was tilted slightly like a confused pokemon would do. He did not act like a human. And being able to understand pokemon as well.

"We should probably take you back to your family, 'cause you'd be surprised what they think. They seemed to feel really bad about it, y'know" Riley mused, calmly placing Scarlet on his other shoulder.

Scarlet suddenly became incredibly conflicted, both by riding on this scary human and the idea of going back to her family, but Riley seemed to think that her family regretted pushing her away. What should she believe?

"Well, if you have nothing to say… Hold on tight!" Riley exclaimed as he went and barreled forward. Scarlet nearly fell off, though Amber tried to help her. Not having any warning, Scarlet would certainly have flow off of the human's shoulder if he had not been running in a position that allowed the pokemon to brace themselves on his shoulders.

" _He's fast!"_ Scarlet thought frantically. She would have had no chance at all to get away from this guy. She wondered just what he could do with that weapon of his. Riley changed course slightly, seeing less trees to one side and deciding that was a good bet if he wanted to get to a clearing, even if a lot of the space was taken up by destroyed trees.

Did Scarlet want to see her family at all? She really did not know. She might know the moment she actually sees them, but for this very moment she was completely uncertain of her feelings about the situation.

They had accused her of lying, and basically kicked her out.

They apparently were sorry about it?

They shouted at her to shut up and leave them alone.

They were willing to send somebody to get her back, unless this human had another agenda.

They insulted her.

They… wanted her back?

Such thoughts went through Scarlet's mind at the speed of light as they approached the orchard. She had caught a glimpse of the carnage, but not that much. So when she saw it, she gave a gasp.

Trees were broken in half, the incinerated remains of dozens of types of berries lay scattered around. The pikachus were gathering what they could for safekeeping. There were her old friends, the few who had bothered to believe her, talking with another human with bright yellow hair in a ponytail and travelling clothes on. One of her other friends, another shy pichu by the nickname Dart was hiding away from the group.

At least they had been nice to her. Whether they actually believed her, she never knew. They definitely enjoyed her story though.

Her shiny friend would have thought so too.

At this thought, Scarlet felt tears come to her eyes. She tried to push them away, but a few escaped her eyes. This is what caught Yellow's attention; the sadness and fear of Scarlet reached her own mind, and she looked up from where she was entertaining the pichus.

"You're back, Riley" Yellow greeted the boy, and then looked at the pichu. "There there, little one, you don't have to worry" she soothed the small mouse. Then, Yellow looked at Riley.

"You didn't see Chuchu did you? I sent her after this little one when the battle started" Yellow commented, unconcerned for her powerful friend's safety but unwilling to go without information.

"Nope. No sign of her. Guess she lost track of Scarlet here" Riley replied, giving Scarlet a comforting scratch behind her ear without the points. Yellow analyzed the pichu in question with a soft gaze.

"Scarlet is her name?"

"Y-yes…" Scarlet replied to Yellow's question. She knew of Yellow, but she had expected her to be different. Yellow was sizing her up, seeming to think. Finally, she looked around at the surprised pokemon, gesturing to them.

"As far as I can tell, they all regret what they did. I'm pretty sure they didn't mean for you to be gone forever" Yellow said as she stepped aside "they thought you'd be back after a while, maybe thinking you would clear your head and such. But…"

Yellow turned to the pokemon around her. "This pichu's memories are clear: she did in fact meet the time travel pokemon named Celebi." Yellow said to them, a slight edge to her voice.

The undertone clearly said: " _An apology is in order, I think"_.

Scarlet was terrified. What if they still didn't believe her about her experience? She was afraid they would still hate her. She wanted to run once more, but she expected the insanely fast and strong human wouldn't let that happen.

It was Raichu that came to her first. The strongest of the group, he had been away quite a bit patrolling the territory and knocking out trespassers to ensure the safety of the group. He was not seen often, but apparently he had been trained in fighting by a 'warrior'.

The way he looked at Riley with a friendly gleam told Scarlet all she needed to know.

"Hey" he said first, and Scarlet realized she was shrinking back from the strong pokemon. Finding a thunderstone around this forest was rare, and finding one basically guaranteed you in a position as a protector of the family, but… he seemed rather gentle at the moment.

"You know, I only really heard your tale once" he admitted "and I was sorry to have laughed at it. I had heard it from another, and had never seen the difference. You've changed, Scarlet, and that should have been evidence enough for me, but I guess I just don't see you enough"

His apology was as sincere as anything she had ever heard, and it brought more of a smile to her face. However, many pikachu were reluctant to come forward.

Her friends came next, squealing about how awesome it must have been to see the legendary time traveler. Honestly, Scarlet felt a tiny bit resentful of the legendary. She had made her different and gave her a story that nobody would believe.

Then her parents and siblings came along. Most of those siblings had become pikachu already, but they were still siblings. They had also treated her well, although they had looked rather disappointed when she continued to insist she was telling the truth. Now that Yellow had verified the situation, her family was angry at themselves for not believing her. Just like Raichu said, they had realized that the weird change she had undergone should have proved it in an instant.

But very few others came forward. They gave excuses like: "What is there to say that hasn't already been said?" and the like. Some still held the gleam of resentment in their eyes, and Scarlet shrank away from them.

Before any decision could be made, they heard the sound of a motorcycle as Jenny skidded to a stop at the entrance of the orchard.

Jenny's eyes grew wide as she tried to comprehend the damage. Trees broken, burned, or otherwise damaged. Berries destroyed or at least rendered unusable. Ravaged ground and soil damaged. Pikachu family trying to gather the remains for the future.

Then, her shocked gaze turned onto the pile of unconscious grunts and the other pokemon milling about, and she grew angry.

"Men! Take these team rocket members straight to jail! New procedure for pokemon in their possession is a go!" Jenny shouted at her men who were now arriving. They quickly got to work, seeing the anger in their commander in chief.

"Are you all alright?" Jenny asked, sizing up the kids and the pikachu family.

"Who the heck do you think you're talking to?" Amber asked, feigning being hurt by the comment. "We're the indestructible team! The freak human, the indomitable Growlithe, and me!"

Amber's shenanigans reminded Riley of his promise. "You know… I never got to pay you back, Amber…" Riley said, giving a grin that made Growlithe step back. Amber tried to leap away immediately, but it was all over for her.

While Amber was being crushed and noogied, Scarlet was looking on from Riley's shoulder in surprise. What was the human **doing** to that poor eevee? She realized that Amber did have a bit of a smile on her face, when it wasn't in pain, so she knew it was probably just horseplay.

"Perhaps you could have elaborated on how many grunts there were?" Jenny asked as she dialed a number on her own police grade phone. She put it to her ear and immediately began talking as the police station picked up. "Send me some cars to put these guys in. there are a lot of them, so send about ten police cars to hold them. We don't want them to be too comfortable, but we can't pack them so tightly it would be cruel" Jenny coldly said.

Then, she turned back to the group, putting a smile on her face that, while slightly convincing, was negated by her harshness before. She had just been through enough of team rocket's crap to no longer care as much about their feelings.

But her smile eventually turned real as she talked to the others. Riley was given information on how exactly he was supposed to report in, knowing something was happening. A mention of the injured or captured was one of those bits of information.

And Yellow was told to use her phone more often than Riley, if only for the sake of efficiency.

"Hey!" Riley and Amber exclaimed together. The girls laughed at him before starting a conversation that Riley was apparently no longer a part of. Riley checked on Scarlet.

"Well then. This is your family, Scarlet. They want you back" Riley noted, trying to put some assurance into his voice.

But Scarlet was very hesitant. many pikachu had neglected to acknowledge the fact that she had been telling the truth, even if they were ashamed of pushing her so far away. Some pikachu looked away from her as she looked at them, others hung their heads in shame. Others looked curiously at her, wondering what she would do.

Then, her close family came to her. Scarlet immediately went to greet them, hoping beyond anything that they had something to say that didn't start with 'i'm sorry'. She had heard that enough now.

Her mother embraced her as she got to the ground after scampering down Riley's pant leg. The pikachu looked her daughter in the eyes, understanding why she was so hesitant.

"You and your friend Shine…" she started "You always wanted adventure, didn't you? I hated seeing that dream crushed when Shine disappeared. And then you came talking about Celebi, and nobody believed you…"

Scarlet's mother steeled herself. "You will always be welcome here, but it may take time for the others to let this go past. I understand why you didn't come back: you understood that. That's… That's not something a child should have to be burdened with. What do you want to do?" she asked.

Now Scarlet had to make a choice. She didn't even know what choices she had, but her mother was here saying that she knew the difficulty Scarlet would happen if she returned right now, that it would take time for things to get back to normal. And Scarlet also realized just how envious some of the others could be. Even if they got over the fact she was telling the truth… she had been visited by a legendary, and that was a special thing indeed.

No, staying would cause a lot of pain from the rest of the family. Her closer family, her mother, father, and siblings would be fine with her, but the others… there was no way to know. Scarlet's mind began to turn towards the concept of adventure.

To journey around, that had always been something Scarlet wanted to do, and her closest friend Shine had shared that idea. When Shine had been taken right in front of Scarlet, who was unable to do anything about it, that idea had begun to fade.

Then, she recalled how it had felt flying through the trees at an incredible rate on the shoulder of that boy. An innate feeling she had not identified.

It had been elation. Freedom.

And Scarlet knew that this boy understood pokemon, and was on good terms with his pokemon. She watched him tickle the eevee to tears for a while, trying to decide if that was the right decision.

"Yellow has told us something of that boy there" Scarlet's mother commented, seeing what Scarlet was looking at. "See, he never puts his pokemon in pokeballs, and only captures them so that they cannot ever be captured again. I'm sure if you wanted to go with him, he would gladly take you back home when…"

she choked up. "... if you want to come home" she finished. Scarlet hugged her tighter, but she was definitely liking the idea of being free from those pokeballs forever, and Riley seemed like a good human, despite his strange personality that was like a mix of pokemon and human behavior.

Scarlet made her decision.

"I-I can come back, right?" she asked timidly of her family in general. All of the pokemon that were willing to nodded enthusiastically. They knew what she meant. Many still wanted her gone for a variety of reasons, but there were enough there to see her off with smiles on their faces and voices of 'good luck'.

Riley had released Amber finally, who shot off to hide behind Growlithe, gasping for breath. Growlithe was chuckling to himself. Riley, for his part, had sat against a tree and was looking at the horde of pikachu with interest, listening to the conversation.

Goodbyes were said, and Riley was still unsure of the situation. But little Scarlet timidly approached him after they broke apart from the group. "Um…" Scarlet tried to say something, but had nothing to say. How would she tell this human she wanted to stick around him?

Riley's smile widened at the timid pokemon's actions. "You wanted to come along then, Scarlet?" he asked the pichu, who hesitated before nodding. He smiled, and took out one of the pokeballs he kept with him.

"This should be the last time you ever have to be in a pokeball, all right?" Riley asked, holding out the red and white monstrosity in his palm rather than throwing it. Scarlet felt a little happier. It would only take a few seconds, and she would be free from those devices forever.

Scarlet smiled and touched the button on the pokeball, immediately being turned into red energy and pulled inside. The ball clicked shut within seconds. Riley held it up for a moment, sensing the tense situation, and figured out how to open it and release her from her confinement. Riley put the ball in his bag, planning to send it to the professor.

Scarlet shook herself, glad to be out of that prison. She was officially part of the team now, though she knew Riley would let her go home whenever she wanted, within limitation of course. Something Riley was going to embellish on.

"I'm willing to take you home when you want to go" Riley said "but we'll be travelling all over the region, and maybe even out of it if i've read my rulebook properly on my responsibilities. It may take time to get back here." Riley warned.

Scarlet nodded at this. Nothing was simple in life, was it? That was fine. There wasn't any real time limit. Then Riley smiled. He picked up the pichu and put her on her designated shoulder, his left shoulder. Amber would sit on the right.

"And that's that?" Riley asked of everyone there. Yellow nodded, and Scarlet let out a stuttering "yes". The pikachu began to go back to trying to salvage berries from the destruction save for the closest ones to Scarlet, who had one more goodbye to give.

"Be safe."

"Come back eventually, all right? It was boring here without you around."

"you'll do fine, kid. Keep that human alive, yeah?

"Have fun!"

"Goodbye, Scarlet."

Amber laughed out loud as she scampered back up onto Riley's shoulder, having her breath and a little of her pride restored. "Even the pikachu think you're weak!" she said happily.

"Oi!" Riley exclaimed "You don't want to be tickled to **death** , do you?"

Amber yelped and tried to get out of reach, something that is very hard to do when you are on the shoulder of the boy she was trying to hide from. There were no valid hiding spots.

As everyone present laughed at Amber, Riley began to prepare to leave, happy that another group of pokemon were safe from the rockets. Somebody would try to fix up the orchard, though it may take many years to get it back to normal.

Jenny watched them go, not willing to talk to Riley specifically at the moment. She had gone over the records from so many years ago. She knew who Riley was, who he had been, and who he probably didn't remember. Tomorrow she would be off to see a very important person in Riley's life, and Riley did not need to know just yet. Preparations had to be made, and Riley would have to know later, maybe once he had arrived in Pewter.

Seeing the boy and Yellow walk off, chatting aimlessly and talking to their new pokemon friend, Jenny smiled for a bit. The smile faded as she tried to determine just what kind of situation she was getting into. The possible reactions of both Riley and his mother were frustratingly undefined and incalculable.

Jenny's next stop was the home of Calia Oras in Veridian.

* * *

 **Jango: Ohhh, if that isn't interesting... Anyways, I'm here for the end rather than Hyperjade. The reason? Like you're ever gonna know.**

 **Amber: Jango, I've been looking for you!**

 **Jango: Ah, shit... *disappears***

 **Amber: Not this time! *Smashes Jango into the ground* Hyper's been the victim of a very elaborate trap, Jango. Frankly, you're lucky I convinced him to let ME punish you.**

 **Jango: How does he know it was me?**

 **Amber: Because you put up a sign.**

 **Jango: Ohh, that one.**

 **Amber: A sign.**

 **Jango: Yep. Just to tease him a little. Plain old car engine based potato sack ankle traps are just boring. You have to mess with them too!**

 **Amber: A. Freaking. Sign.**

 **Jango: That's me! You know me.**

 **Amber: Unfortunately.**

 **Jango: But after all these years, you still think you can stop me. *Poofs into white smoke*.**

 **Amber: Jango!**

 **Me: *Limps into the room* Alright... Let's just... End the chapter... Thanks for reading... Review, follow, submit OC's via PM... Pigeoncracker was too busy this week... I'm going to take a nap.**

* * *

 **Nickname:**

 **Age:**

 **Gender:**

 **Species:**

 **Personality:**

 **Background (this may be lengthy):**

 **Unique Aspect (optional):**

 **Other:**


	7. Chapter Seven: Pewter Ambush

**Hey, everybody! Hyperjade here. Jango's here, Amber's here... Well, that's it really.**

 **Amber: Should we get somebody else to be here too? All the others are available.**

 **Me: Maybe.**

 **Jango: More people to- *Catches Amber's death glare* -...treat perfectly normally?**

 **Amber: *Sighs***

 **Me: We had better get on with the chapter, but only after review time!**

 **Jango: Let's challenge you guys. Get enough people reviewing on this story that we need to respond to reviews by PM to avoid it being too long.**

 **Amber: That's... not one of your dumbest ideas. Are you still Jango?**

 **Jango: Of course I am. Let's see, who has signed up for me to make fun of...**

 **Me: And by that he means who has graciously reviewed my story, and will not be messed with in any way. Amber, restrain him.**

 **Amber: Done.**

 **Jango: You'll never catch me! *Poofs into smoke***

 **Me: Okay, the guest first... What sword? I don't remember a sword...**

 **Amber: He's right about Jango, though. All of it.**

 **Me: Shh... Spoilers. Okay... Phillip Harbindinger... Gee, thank you. As for the altered cource thing, it simply added a chapter for me. Thanks by the way, otherwise the trip to Pewter would have gone without incident. And we need incidents, dang it!**

 **Jango: Got that right! Man, getting to you was easy!**

 **Amber and I: *Shudders in suprise***

 **Amber: JANGO!**

 **Me: Oh dear... I did say little guy, huh? Whoops. Although that term is typically used to describe somebody small anyways, I'm glad you found that amusing. At any rate, thanks for reviewing again. Hope you like this chapter! *Starts muttering to myself* Now to stop Jango from annoying Amber further. The last time that happened...**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven: Pewter Ambush**

"S-sir?" a familiar rocket grunt with a broken arm in a cast stammered as he looked to his superior. This superior was mostly in shadow, like the typical bad guy introduction, but his growl of annoyance was not missed by the leader of the most recent group to attack Riley and Yellow.

"What is it?" the shadowed man growled, already figuring out the answer. of **course** they failed. Why would they not?

"W-we couldn't get the eevee from the boy. he was too strong" the grunt leader stammered.

"No, of course you didn't, you pathetic weaklings." The man snarled "What pokemon could he possibly be using do defeat all of you at once?"

"H-he doesn't, sir…"

"He doesn't **what**?" The higher up demanded, not understanding exactly what the grunt was trying to say.

"He doesn't use pokemon. He beat us all down by himself…" The grunt finally admitted, preparing for the worst. "He fought like a demon, sir, taking us all apart with his short staff that absorbed our attacks. I don't know how, but-"

" **Enough**." the man demanded, causing the grunt to flinch and back away in fear. "I wonder why I have not been informed of this yet?"

"W-well, sir-"

"Because I have a **perfect** solution," the man said with ease, deciding to let the poor grunt go unscathed for his failure. he looked plenty injured anyways. The man picked up his phone and dialed a number. Barely a moment later, it was picked up.

"What is it, sir?" the voice asked on the phone.

"We have another one. One like **him**." The man replied. There was a tense moment of silence on the phone after a slight intake of breath was heard.

"W-we do sir? Where?"

"He's the target. No more sending grunts after him. Get **him** on the line, get his price, and send that piece of shit to the front lines. It's time to fight fire with fire, or in this case, an asshole with another asshole." The man ordered.

"Y-yes sir!" came the very frightened reply.

* * *

"Two days without any incident." Yellow commented, actually writing it down. "You know, I think this might be a new record for you."

This teasing caught Riley's attention. "Well, since **you** showed up," he shot back "Actually, my life was relatively normal until everything went down."

"You're blaming **me**?"

"I'd say it's more of a… what's the word, coincidence?" Riley replied easily, not wanting to get on Yellow's bad side all of a sudden. Human females were far scarier than any other being.

"That would be an appropriate term." Growlithe commented.

Amber and Scarlet were quiet, seemingly burned out from being involved in two days worth of conversation. Scarlet was taking a nap on Riley's left shoulder, and Amber was nearing that point on his right.

Scarlet, for her part, had done her best to get to know Riley, as he would be protecting her. Something about him made him easy to trust. Perhaps it had been his attitude, or the fact that he understood pokemon as well or even better than yellow did, or that he was amusing and happy a lot of the time… Scarlet had found herself trusting the boy easily.

It had taken a mere day for Scarlet to begin to act far more talkative and happy than before around the humans. That was quite impressive. For some reason, she never had dreams while around the boy, either.

Yellow drew a line right through her note and wrote it again with a slight edit. "There. 'record for lack of encounters since we began traveling: Two days'" Yellow amended.

Riley laughed heartily. "Two days without having a group of morons attack us… I have to say I'm conflicted."

"Conflicted?" Yellow and Growlithe asked in unison, trying with all their might to understand the unpredictable boy.

"Yep. Conflicted. On the one hand, we aren't getting attacked, but on the other, I lose my favorite group of punching bags" Riley explained, hiking his pack up on his shoulders.

"Where did you hear the term 'punching bag'?" Growlithe asked, recalling that Riley was out of society for most of his life. Riley shrugged. It must have been at some point while he was in the city or something. He didn't remember it, but it must have happened.

The conversation took an abrupt halt for about five minutes until buildings finally showed up on the horizon. "Pewter?" Riley asked the group in general.

"Yep. That's Pewter City." Yellow confirmed "We'll be heading to the police office right away to make sure they know we arrived safely, get ourselves a room at the pokemon center, and eat some well-deserved lunch"

"Lunch?" Three voices asked as Riley and both pokemon on his shoulders perked up immediately. Yellow gave a half-giggle, half-chuckle as she noted Riley's new and sudden love of human food. It was probably the chocolate she gave him yesterday.

" _Which may or may not have been a big mistake…"_ Yellow thought to herself as she continued forward, trailed by three excited people and one indifferent one. Why Growlithe was looking so dull was confusing.

Yellow discreetly searched his mind as she walked. There was a multitude of emotions raging through his head, so strong that it was amazing that it wasn't causing Yellow's head to ring. Sadness and frustration were the main ones. Not a single coherent thought was going through his head, almost as though he was simply consumed by emotion, but what about?

Riley and the other girls were discussing lunch of course. Yellow was distracted by this. She allowed Growlithe to do what he was doing for the moment, mostly because she was confident that she could handle it.

"You know, junk food isn't good for you at all. you'll need some more exercise" Yellow finally commented as they entered the city.

"Exercise? I exercise all the time!" Riley shot back, still daydreaming about food. He had yet to have proper fast food, and he just knew that Yellow was regretting telling him what a cheeseburger was. He was just dying to try it… followed by some physical training to burn off whatever stuff that would add to his stomach.

But…

"It's just human food. I don't think pokemon can eat it." Yellow informed them. Amber was **not** happy.

" **What**!? Why can't we have cheeseburgers!?" Amber demanded. Scarlet was silent, temporary dream shattered.

"Well, most pokemon can't digest some of the stuff that humans eat. It's poison to them" Yellow explained, jolting the three daydreamers to full attention.

"...What do they **put** into those things to be poisonous to pokemon, but not to humans? Is this some sort of ploy or-" Riley started, but Yellow put her finger on his lips.

"It's just the ingredients humans use. Frankly, it's bad for humans too, but our bodies can handle it, unlike most smaller pokemon at least. The only reasons anybody eats it are that it's A: Cheap, and B: tasty."

Riley shut his slightly open mouth.

"Oh! You just got **schooled**!" Amber exclaimed, teasing the boy, who was too busy blinking to really take the time to retaliate in any way.

"She's probably got a point" Scarlet pointed out, flicking her ear with the spikes. Riley snapped out of it and groaned.

"You're spending too much time around Amber" He muttered, earning himself a smack from the aforementioned eevee, who looked quite cross. "What does **that** mean, you smelly human?" she asked.

Now **this** , this earned her a good old fashioned noogie.

" **Ow**! Owowowowowwwwow!" Amber cried out.

"You give?" Riley inquired cheerfully

"I— **ow**!—give!"

Riley released the eevee, who pushed away from his chest in panic and crashed right into Yellow, sending both human and eevee to the ground.

While the whole group besides Growlithe had a nice and good laugh at that, Yellow decided to give her pokemon a chance to walk around. Gravvy almost broke the pavement, but somehow Yellow did not wind up having to pay for damages while the rock type stomped after the group.

Riley's eye caught something. A flash of movement in one of those dark alleys that he had been told not to go into. A flash of white light. He acted as though nothing had happened. Acted as if he had seen nothing, but he was now on his guard.

He wished that he could mentally communicate with Yellow.

" _Maybe it's just nothing. Maybe there is nothing to worry about-oh who am i kidding. It's team rocket again, I just know it. Five…"_ Riley thought, taking another step.

" _Four..."_

There was no more movement. Whatever mistake that guy had made was not to be repeated.

" _Three..."_

Yellow noticed Riley's silence.

" _Two…"_

"Riley?" Yellow asked, worried, and followed his gaze.

" _One!"_ Riley finished in his mind, rolling his shoulders and dislodging the pokemon there rather ruthlessly, pulling up his 'walking stick', which happened to be his trusty staff, and brought it above his head.

"Ah!" Yellow shouted in surprise

"Vee!" Amber cried out, a sound of surprise rather than any words

"Chuu!" Scarlet squealed in the same manner as Amber

 **CLANG! CLANG!**

Riley's quarterstaff had collided against two sword looking weapons. They were the same white color, gleaming in the sun as a man pushed Riley away from the entrance with impressive strength. A man stepped into the light.

He had a feral gleam in his eyes. His messy hair was blond and ran down to the start of his neck and looked like it hadn't been washed in a long time. He wore surprisingly civilian type clothing, His maniac look was only intensified by the evil smirk on his face.

"'Sup?" he asked, pulling the blades back. Riley was going to reply, but he noticed the blades. They were the same white as his staff, and gleamed in the light. They were not swords, but **saws**. Where the blade would be, it looked like several half circles of metal had been cut out to make a brutal looking edge. It was not thin either, as it maintained its thickness of a third of an inch all the way through. The handles were also that metal, but had marks on them that would make it easier to grip.

That was as far as Riley got before several things happened. Amber and Scarlet hit the ground, Yellow frantically pulled out a pokeball, rocket grunts swarmed out and around the group, and the new guy swung his twin saws right at Riley's neck from both sides in a scissoring motion.

"Whoa!" Riley exclaimed as he leaped back onto a handstand before pushing away from the ground to land on his feet right on the curb. "Seriously!? Is that really how you introduce yourself!?"

"Get the pichu and eevee!" several grunts shouted at once, hoping that the scary man they had been forced to work with would keep the almost equally scary boy at bay.

"Not happening!" Riley roared, jumping to cover them while deflecting another saw. the problem with this was that this new man had two weapons. Riley's staff swung about in a rather desperate move that nevertheless smacked the two running grunts flat on their back.

But in the process, one saw put a nasty wound near his elbow. Shredding the skin, the white saw caused Riley to let out a roar of pain even as he scooped up the pokemon and jumped away. While doing so, he activated the little tracker hidden in his belt with a firm press. The pokemon were freaking out, even more so when Riley practically tossed them to Yellow.

"Get them out of here. **Now**!" Riley roared, dropping his pack and brandishing his staff. Yellow had Dody out of her pokeball already. She nodded as she caught the two, and bolted off, leaving the rocket members in the dust.

"You morons go after her." the new guy ordered, brandishing his saw at the fleeing Yellow. "My Job's to take care of this kid."

The team rocket members gladly agreed and piled into their nearby van and rode off.

"Take care of me, huh?" Riley asked, now ready for a real fight. The new guy turned to see him casually wrapping one of those large gauze bandages around his elbow and cutting off the flow of blood coming from his arm. He flexed it with little effort afterwards. "I don't know about you, but I'm just getting started."

This seemed to please the saw wielding man. "Heh. I know your type. I see it every time i look in a mirror. Ready?" he inquired, brandishing his weapons in a ready position that Riley had never seen before.

"I'm guessing having a bunch of moronic lackeys following you around was **not** your idea?" Riley asked, assuming a stance this new enemy had never seen before. This brought a smirk to both guys as they tensed.

"Not at all" the man sneered, bolting forward and leaping up. He whirled, his weapons pinwheeling around him. "in fact," he continued "I prefer to do everything **myself**!"

Riley spun right over his aggressor, throwing his staff downward like a spear to try and knock him down. "So do I, actually."

Riley found his strike inexplicably blocked as they both fell down to the ground again. "That's new" the new guy said with a grin. "I barely saw that one coming."

Riley threw in his own grin. "Good to know. I'm guessing you'll see it next time?"

"Definitely."

Both shot forward at impressive speeds that are not associable with humans. Riley was forced to block both weapons that were thrown overhead at him. To his utter surprise, Riley realized that this new guy was actually pushing him back, **stronger** than him.

"You never did give me your name, you know"

"Neither did you."

"Riley."

"Zach."

Riley gathered his power and pushed back. When He was tall enough, he whirled and slammed the heel of his right foot into Zach's stomach. This cost him the power he had in blocking, and unfourtunently, Zach barely winced and pushed him over.

But what Riley did not expect was for the man to not take advantage of the situation and make him bleed a little more. "Arceus, you're good, kid. I haven't been that affected by a kick in years" Zach sneered.

"Well, I **know** i'm good" Riley retorted, getting involved in what would have been a friendly conversation if they weren't trying to **kill** each other. "I guess I'll just have to be **better**. Guess what, Zach? I've only started!"

Riley took a different stance that, rather than holding his quarterstaff at the middle, he held it behind him in a stance slightly akin to a kenjutsu stance, but with a certain personal touch to it.

"Getting serious, are we?" Zach asked with a raised eyebrow.

 **Clang!**

Riley's strike came from **behind**. Instead of becoming imbalanced, Riley was ready to take any hit in case Zach managed to block the attack, which he did with relative ease. His free saw also came over his head to stab Riley.

Riley ducked with ease, despite the slightly increased speed of the strike. with one hand, he held the 'healthy' side of the saw that had not proper way to damage him, and used his staff to hold both in place. He had all the leverage, all the control.

Knowing this, Riley began to deliver a flurry of kicks to Zach's back, putting so much power into the, that Zach actually began to feel the pain of the strikes.

" _Nicely done. I'll have that trick off you for later"_ Zach complimented in his head as he calmly tried to work out how to get out. It would cause some pain, but there was no other way. Getting free would be costly here.

Zach ducked, practically curling into a ball, and Riley's foot went above him. Now Zach surged up and caught the leg between his arm and head, not giving an inch of it back. "You'll have to do better than that, kid" He commented.

Now for what Zach knew would happen. Riley drew up his other foot and smashed Zach in the back of his head. using Zach like a springboard, he launched himself a good five meters away.

"That good enough for you?" Riley drawled, looking up to see the man grinning at him.

"A challenge. Just what I wanted" Zach replied, readying his saws again.

"While you're busy hoping for a fight every other day, that's what I've been getting. I have to say it, most of you humans are pathetic" Riley commented in return.

"Human? Like you aren't?" Zach asked casually, rather enjoying the unorthodox conversation with his adversary. They were alike in power, if not skills. Not only that, he was also very similar to him in personality. Both man and boy found themselves granting grudging respect to the other, even a spark of friendship. The kind of friendship where they would happily waste the other.

"Oh. Right" Riley muttered, suddenly slightly sheepish. "Actually, I have had zero human contact for thirteen years, kind of making human life hard."

"Heh. You got that strong in that way, huh? Guess what kid, I did something similar, but I gather it was more by choice. My choice was to be stronger than you! Sorry kid, but I've been paid to slash your throat and make sure you bleed out."

"Prove it. Prove you're stronger than me" Riley replied. Both grinned as they prepared once more to leap into combat.

Which is what they did.

* * *

Yellow was losing ground.

Dody was really fast, but even so, motorcycles were slightly faster if need be. The same was true for trucks like the one chasing her. The one **shooting** at her.

"This is bad, this is really really bad…" Yellow muttered as she bobbed and weaved through the streets. The streets full of cars. Her other pokemon were in their pokeballs, unable to help in a high speed chase.

Innocent people would get hurt if she did not do anything. Yellow gritted her teeth and allowed some anger into her system.

"Alley!" Yellow exclaimed, and Dody dove into the dark ally. The team rocket grunts pulled up and leaped out, weapons at the ready. The plan was to take out the dodrio and then take the other pokemon and the girl hostage.

One rocket turned on a flashlight to reveal… an empty ally.

 **BOOM!**

Gravvy rocked the pavement, landing behind the rockets and activating a stealth rock. Trapped in an improvised cage, the grunts tried to shoot the golem. Gravvy curled up and rolled away far faster than any rock type should have been able to.

"nobody move!" one grunt yelped. "A wrong step and we're dead!"

Gravvy had designed these rocks to kill, not injure, with it's sharper points, and the rockets knew it. It was a way of saying: " _You are done with your crusade. Wait for the police to arrive"_

And guess who Yellow was calling?

* * *

 **Clang!**

 **Crnch…**

 **Clang!**

"You'll have to do far better than that!"

"Hey, that's **my** line!"

 **Clang!**

" _he's faster than I am, and the new way he holds that staff isn't helping me at all. What fun!"_ Zach thought to himself as he knocked away a strike.

" _he's stronger than me. His saws are not the easiest thing to block… Now this is a real challenge!"_ Riley contemplated as he traded blows and words with his equal.

Riley spun around Zach, putting the two of them back to back as Riley and Zach both began attacking each other without looking at all. Because Riley had the free hand, he was able to plant his palm on the shoulder of the bigger man and flip upwards, delivering a crushing blow to Zach's head in the process.

This cost him, however, as Zach was not about to let that slide. Riley got two new badly bleeding gashes in the same arm. Riley grimaced.

Zach's hand came back from the back of his head with blood on it. "Nice, kid. Nice" he commented as he nursed the injury. Riley narrowed his eyes and assumed another new stance. Now his staff was held like a two handed sword, heavy end out front.

"This isn't over" Riley promised, and charged once more. Zach grinned in response and readied his saws in yet another new fashion. Both guys had so many hidden fighting styles that never in a million years could either of them be predictable.

Riley would have to aim for the head to do any proper damage, which put him at a disadvantage, but had the speed and grace to back it up, putting him at an advantage. He slid right in between Zach's legs and poleaxed the small of Zach's back, immediately vaulting away. He could not afford to take any more hits.

Zach literally whirled at him, and Riley attempted to take advantage of that by smashing down on the man's skull, but Zach blocked it with ease and attempted to stab Riley again. Riley's flight path took him to Zach's other side, where he moved his staff back to it's center position and began a speedy and brutal mix of martial arts, kicking rapidly, smacking the older man around with his staff, and various ninja-like skills as well.

Zach, caught off guard, took many hits before he steeled himself and Riley, despite all of his speed, found his arm in the grip of Zach's large hand. He had actually dropped his weapon to catch him, something Zach had never had to do, and something that Riley had never expected.

But Riley was absolutely trapped, and nothing was getting him out of this next blow.

 **POW!**

Zach had reared back his fist, made eye contact with a sneer, and promptly punched Riley a full seven meters away. "Guh…" Riley muttered, feeling his clearly broken nose. He was not used to being hurt like this, and it hurt a lot.

 **Boom!**

Riley was knocked onto his back, Zach over him with his saws hold to either side of Riley's neck. "Shame i have to kill you, boy," he sneered, "But I've been paid to end you."

"You beat me." Riley said, more to himself than to Zach, but then he seemed to relax a bit. "You actually beat me. I'm supposed to be the unbeatable Riley, stronger than everyone else, human and pokemon. I have to say you had me on the ropes"

"You would have to be a lot better to take me out" Zach replied, and Riley just nodded, not even caring about the slight scratches he got in his neck in the process. "I've got a goal at least" Riley replied, suddenly smiling.

"Sorry, but for me to get paid, you can't go anywhere today, or tomorrow, or the rest of your life. I'd love to see if you could beat me later, but that is not going to happen." Zach said, genuine regret filling his voice. Such an opportune challenge wasted on an early kill, but this job paid to well.

"Haven't you been listening?" Riley asked, that grin still on his face.

"I did. You're wrong."

"No…" Riley said, having understood the hesitation in Zach's face. A later fight is what he wanted, when Riley himself had grown more powerful, and there was one thing that could give them both what they wanted. To be truthful, Riley wanted to live, and both of them wanted to have another fight later. Who were they to turn that option down? "... **Listen**."

Zach opened his ears, and heard the all too familiar sound of police sirens. Things clicked. This Riley kid was smarter than he looked. His grin grew as he suddenly leaped off of Riley. Time for a show.

As Zach faked apprehension at the current situation, Riley decided to comment. "Police trackers are useful things, aren't they?" he asked in apparent victory, though he knew he had lost. But he had lost fair and square, dang it. He would **win** fair and square later on.

"Looks like it's your lucky day, kid" Zach sneered, turning to the boy "We'll finish this later. See ya, kid"

And then he was off somewhere.

"Looking forward to it…" Riley muttered in response. Then he realized that he couldn't move very much. He was getting dizzy.

" _Blood loss. That's why i was so easy to hit."_ Riley thought, feeling like an idiot. here he was, starting to fall unconscious from blood loss. How embarrassing.

Several police cars pulled up, and officer Jenny was the first out of the car.

"Oh… Arceus…" Jenny muttered as she began to tend to Riley's wounds using his own gauze bandages. "What **happened** to you?"

"An asshole with some saws. beat the crap out of me. Hired to kill me." Riley replied far too casually for Jenny's liking.

"Get an ambulance over here!" she ordered the officers behind her.

"Saved by the police siren." Riley muttered "How embarrassing."

"Be calm. Help's on the way." Jenny said, misinterpreting his mutterings as being delirious from blood loss. Then, Jenny noticed something about what he had said. "Saws? He ripped your major arteries open with saws?"

A nod.

" _I can't believe team rocket would already be sending that mercenary after this kid… And by the looks of it, Riley held his own long enough to not die. Nobody survives a killing mark by the white saw…"_ Jenny thought as the ambulance pulled up.

Soon, Riley was on his way to the hospital.

* * *

Yellow sat in a chair near a hospital bed. It had been several days. Growlithe sat patiently nearby the bed, his own thoughts doing little to hinder his devotion to the boy who had saved him. Doctors frantically whispered to each other as they freaked out over the latest development.

"Something about Riley gives him rather impressive capacity for self healing. We almost didn't actually have to give him blood. Only before he went critical, and his body did the rest." one examiner explained to another man taking notes.

"And why is that?"

"His body is bursting with energy. More than any normal human, definitely, and even more than most pokemon. There is no clear source whatsoever. It's not like he's immortal, but while under care his wounds can be healed in days rather than months."

"What limits does it have?"

"We don't know, but even broken bones cannot be that difficult for his body to mend."

"What can we-"

"Stop" Yellow interrupted. All the adults in the room turned to her, and were shocked to find anger in her eyes.

"If you say the word 'use', or anything of the sort, I will make sure you never, ever get the chance to so much as near him again" Yellow growled, pointing with an accusing finger, her pokemon growling from their pokeballs as well. There was a tense silence as the adults quailed under the sight of Yellow's " _Kill you dead"_ aura. Before they did anything in fear, or something stupid, Riley began to wake up.

Or rather, he had been awake for a while. He knew how to be stealthy. Most people moan and groan when they wake. Not Riley. Probably not Zach either.

Riley couldn't stop thinking about that guy. He was stronger than him, mostly from just surviving out in the wilderness, although he's had a choice and probably spent more time out there than in a giant tower that was Riley's home.

Someone who was stronger than him…

Why was that so satisfying?

But he had learned something about himself. Something about improved healing? Apparently his body was mostly good to go right now. he felt it. He was strong… Stronger, actually. He felt even stronger. What was this? Would he ever know?

Whatever it was doing to him, he felt much better. He felt like taking on the world. There were no aches, no real pain. It had been the first time he had been so badly injured, almost bleeding out, but his body had responded with impressive force.

And Yellow sounded so **awesome** in the way she was defending him.

"Gee, thanks, Yellow" Riley started, but immediately, for the second time as of late, was blindsided by a punch.

"You **idiot**." Yellow scolded, ignoring the exclamations of the adults. "How're you supposed to protect everyone if you're too busy bleeding out? Goodness sakes, if you're losing, **run**!"

Riley blinked a few times, nursing his nose again, which no longer felt like taking on the world. "Oi… Busy protecting you from the guy to realize i was his target and not Amber or Scarlet" he replied. Speaking of the two…

Riley shot out of bed. "Where are Amber and Scarlet!?" He demanded.

Which was when he felt two somethings jump onto his shoulders from behind. "Heh. You're so out of it you didn't notice us!" Amber teased, and Scarlet voiced a cheerful agreement. Scarlet had a new ribbon on the tip of her ear, hiding the spikes.

"Hey you two. I'm glad you're safe. Life would just be way too boring with you guys captured and gone" Riley greeted the pokemon. He then greeted Growlithe with a pat to the head and once again turned towards Amber.

 **Smack!**

"Oh, not you too!" Riley exclaimed at Amber while the other girls laughed at him. He looked at Scarlet. "...You aren't going to hit me too, are you?" he asked apprehensively.

Scarlet just gave him a reassuring pat instead. And then...

"I've got much better ways to teach you not to go getting yourself killed" Scarlet said, her expression changing drastically before she delivered a shock to Riley's shoulder.

"Ow!" Riley exclaimed, and seemed to realize what had just happened. He immediately looked at Amber. "What did you **do** to her? What have you taught Scarlet, you crazy eevee!?"

"Just how to deal with boys" Amber replied cheerfully.

After Riley was done facepalming, there was some more discussion of what the strange man, apparently named Zach, had done to Riley. His strikes, seemingly missing their intended mark, managed to sever large arteries anyways and cause excessive bleeding. It was this that caused Riley to eventually lose some of the things he really needed in a fight against such an opponent: he got dizzy and unfocused and slow.

"Where's my staff?" Riley suddenly asked, realizing that he might have lost his beloved treasure.

"Don't worry," Yellow reassured the teen "Like how other officers are licensed to carry a gun, you have been officially licensed to carry your staff around. They consider you a special case, and so nobody can take it away from you for any reason. Ever."

Riley sighed in relief. "Thanks, Yellow. Now… Where is it?"

"Jenny wanted to talk to you, and to make sure you actually went and talked to her, she's got it. As i just said, she can't really do that, but honestly, I think it was a good way to get you motivated." Yellow replied.

"Welp. Guess I'm talking to Officer Jenny, then."

* * *

Jenny waited in the police office in a secluded room. There was one room adjacent to this one, but it was occupied. They would be going there shortly. Jenny sighed as she waited for the boy, who apparently was already up and kicking after losing far too much blood in a fight. He should have been in intensive care.

Keeping Calia from seeing her son in the hospital had pained Jenny, but there was little she could do about it. She had managed to convince the now frantic mother that it would be best for the boy to be introduced to this gently. Waking up with someone he doesn't know could end badly, particularly because he had just been in a vicious fight.

If Calia was to know **why** the fight occurred, that was up to Riley.

As she contemplated, the boy in question came through the door. His hand came up to catch the staff lightly tossed at him without a second thought. "Hi." he greeted. Jenny had to admit that he looked like he was in perfect health.

"How are you feeling?" Jenny inquired curiously. Having heard about his slight healing factor, she was wondering how he was feeling.

"Nose hurts" He replied.

That was surprising. "I thought it had healed completely?" Jenny asked in confusion.

"Yellow punched me. Amber slapped me. Scarlet shocked me."

" _Ah. Yellow doesn't like it when others put themselves in danger"_ Jenny reminded herself. She did not miss the two pokemon on his shoulders give each other a smile and a high paw. That pichu had gotten some bad habits from the eevee, that was for certain.

"We need to speak of a few things. What I need to know first is what that man was doing with you." Jenny began her interrogation, and Riley was prepared to answer her freely.

"He was after me, not Amber or Scarlet." Riley supplied "Apparently he was hired to kill me. He didn't look like he wanted to, though. Apparently I'm the first challenge the bloke's ever faced."

"Do you think that influenced your survival?" Jenny inquired.

"No. I don't." Riley replied.

"And why is that?"

"Because," Riley smirked "That would have been an insult."

Silence.

Jenny coughed, unwilling to continue that conversation. Instead of dying, Riley had managed to become a rival of sorts to the white saw of all people. Just great. How long would he survive that?

" _Well, probably longer than being a proper target…"_ Jenny admitted to herself.

"There is something more important that I must speak with you about today" Jenny began, prompting Riley to lean forward. "Have you ever considered your family? Before you lived in the wilderness for a solid thirteen years?"

Riley blinked, and his eyes drooped a bit that might have been considered sadness, but Jenny knew him too well. This was his equivalent of slightly narrowing his eyes. "I never really considered it. I had a happy life among only pokemon, devoid of human contact, and it was… nice. I had been told eventually that I had a family somewhere by my teacher, Metagross. However, I never went to find them. Too many questions. It certainly would make everything i had a goal harder. What if they tried to keep me from going back? That was not going to happen." he answered, his voice a bit dull.

"You had a choice?"

"To be honest, Officer," Riley went on "My family is those that I lived with in the… woods. I have no memory of my mother whatsoever, nor my father, nor any potential siblings." That had been close. He had almost mentioned the hidden land.

"I can promised you that nobody will be keeping you anywhere… So if you had the choice, would you talk to your mother?" Jenny asked. Moment of truth.

"...Is this hypothetical?" Riley asked slowly.

Jenny took a deep breath, something Riley noticed instantly. His eyes widened a fraction of a millimeter. "No. It is not" Jenny replied.

Riley felt himself slump a little bit. His mother was here? Why? Why want to see him? It's not like either of them would really know each other. what was the point. " _Do I want to do this?"_ Riley thought to himself. Not really. He truly had no reason to meet the person that was supposed to be his mother.

Well, not a personal reason.

His mother clearly wanted to see the son she lost. If lost is the right word. Even if he did not feel the need to do this, his mother was another story. Riley supposed that that meant something.

"Does she want to meet me?" Riley asked in return.

"Yes."

"In that case, let's go."

The response worried Jenny, but regardless she stood up and moved to the door that separated this room from the next. In that room, a familiar yet much more weary and older looking woman sat. She had spent many years believing that her son had to be dead, but suddenly she is being told that her son is not only alive, but apparently is in more than perfect condition, is a seasoned fighter, and joined up with a special division of the police force in the span of about a week.

The only thing that kept Calia from breaking down the door in front of her and finding her son was the rationale that she had waited for thirteen years, and she was capable of waiting a little longer. She did however allow herself to feel some fear. Jenny had informed her that it was her son's decision whether he would be seeing her or not, and that scared Calia plenty. What if he did not want to see her for whatever reason? What if it was too difficult for him?

Now that she was thinking about it, she was certain that Jenny would come in alone. When the door opened, she was nearly, very nearly relieved that it was Jenny. She had not realized that she had been so worried about seeing the boy.

but immediately afterwards, another person entered the room. He was a teenager, about seventeen. Flame colored hair and brilliant blue eyes were the first thing that Calia noticed. The same hair and eyes that her son had. Once filled with innocence, those eyes were now hard. However, they were not cold. His face had no smile on it now, but she could tell. She could just tell that he smiled a lot.

Calia looked once more upon the boy who was her son.

"..." Riley said nothing as Jenny motioned him to sit in the chair opposite Calia. His eyes never left her face. He just stared at her, appraising her, and Calia felt slightly uncomfortable. Her son was learning about her just by looking at her.

Calia Oras looked to be a woman beginning to show the effects of aging. She was not exactly skinny, but that was barely noticeable beneath her clothing, which was looser and did not show anything off. She looked distressed to Riley.

"Hello." Riley finally greeted. He searched her green eyes and found surprise, like she had not expected him to answer. Riley understood that his mother did not look much like he did at all. That made him suspicious for a moment, but Jenny had explained that genetically, they were in fact son and mother.

He almost questioned the validity of the idea, but Jenny had resources, time, and had never lied to Riley in his life. The boy believed that this was his mother because he trusted Jenny. That really was all.

Calia was completely unprepared for how to begin the conversation. Instead, she reached out for Riley's hand. The boy tensed, causing her to do so as well until she got the courage to clasp one of his hands on the table into hers.

"Riley? It's really you?"

"That's my name" Riley replied, trying to understand why she had his hand in hers. Riley's battle instinct told him she was preparing to throw him over her shoulder and smash him against the ground. His rational thoughts told him that she was trying to show some weird form of affection or something. That is what mothers typically do, after all.

His response had Calia conflicted on how to continue. There were no tears in his eyes, no visible emotion at the moment. His eyes never wavered, never broke eye contact. Finally, she came to a decision.

"Riley… My son… You've grown"

"I was told that I had found my way to my home at four" Riley reminded his mother "thirteen years. I have grown thirteen years, and not much more"

"Riley, why are you being so… emotionless?" Scarlet asked worriedly "You're acting weird."

Riley started. Then, he seemed to relax a little bit. "You're right, Scarlet. Thanks"

"Sorry, I was just a little tense." Riley explained, deciding to be a little more open.

"Hey, is that fear i smell?" Amber suddenly asked with a teasing poke.

"Oi!" Riley exclaimed and promptly grabbed amber in his arms with incredible speed. Calia was sitting there shocked already that he was apparently talking to his pokemon, but that speed astonished Riley's mother. The woman blinked a few times.

Watching Riley give Amber a harsh noogie in response to her teasing words was a bit much for Calia. She slumed slightly, eyes on the table rather than her son. Riley looked utterly happy while talking to his pokemon. He showed nowhere near that happiness while facing his mother.

Riley eventually ceased his relentless attack on Amber's head as he noticed Calia not looking at her son anymore, tears striking the table. Amber, for her part, stopped struggling.

"...Mom?" Riley hesitantly used that title, and his mother looked up. Tears came from her as she learned something. Her son had changed so much that without his hair color and eye color, he could be almost unrecognizable except for one thing, one crucial thing that made him the same Riley as the four year old that had disappeared from her life thirteen years ago.

He **still** loved pokemon. Loved them with a passion. And now, he could understand them. His thirteen years had not been lonely; he was surrounded by the creatures that he loved, and was so in tune with them after all those years that he could understand them perfectly.

Yes, this was her Riley Oras. Her beloved son. Below all of the things he had gone through, he was still the loving boy that he had been.

"Oh… My son…" Calia cried, moving around the small table to envelop her son in a big hug. Riley went statue still, eyes wide and unmoving. Amber gave a giggle at his face.

" _Being hugged being hugged being hugged… This is my mother"_ Riley thought in slight panic. The positioning was awkward, so he stood up as well. He was taller than his mother, he noticed.

Calia only pulled back after five minutes had passed in silence. She saw that Riley had been frozen eventually, and had seen the surprise on his face.

"Oh… My son… What **happened** to you?" Calia asked of the boy. Riley suddenly felt awkward. He could not speak of the hidden land and temporal tower.

"I just… survived. in the woods for thirteen years. I learned how to fight with some help, and… That's really it." Riley replied.

"My little boy… You've come back to me…" Calia cried into her son's shoulder. The stoic boy hesitated before trying to comfort her by hugging her back. It felt incredibly awkward, but Riley hoped that it would alleviate some of the pain his mother was feeling. No, pain was not the right word. Not anymore.

It was relief. Relief and love. The latter was an emotion that Riley had not properly felt for a long time. The last time he felt something even close to this was that crush he developed at ten years old. Around the time that Metagross happened to mention that as a human, he was incompatible with pokemon. Such a shame.

"Awww, you look so **cute**!" Amber teased, having not learned her lesson in any way. Riley's mouth quirked. "Watch it, Amber. How would you like to be hugged 'till you can't breathe?"

"Oh, like you'd do that in front of your moth- **hurk**!" Amber cried out as Riley's hand shot out and he added her to what was now a group hug. He did not crush the eevee, however, as he would have to do the same to his mother.

"You understand them, don't you?" His mother eventually asked, nodding to the pokemon. Riley simply nodded back when they made eye contact.

"Oh Arceus… I can hardly believe it…" Riley's mother continued to cry. Riley showed little emotion at all, but his thoughts were moving, calculating. At first glance, it would be impossible to tell that his mother and he were related, mostly because they did not look much alike at all.

"...Why do I have to be a part of this?" Amber whined, not liking being involved in this group hug at all.

"'Cause you went and called me cute. This is what happens when you call me cute" Riley replied smugly, squeezing her a bit tighter. Scarlet kept an eye on the eevee to make sure that she wasn't going to actually get hurt. Riley's focus was on his mother, after all.

"I'll be honest" Riley murmured "I don't know what to do or say."

"You don't have to, child. You're safe" his mother reassured him, not understanding what his life was like.

"I was always safe" Riley muttered, finally breaking away from the hug because if felt so awkward.

"How could it have been **safe**?" Calia asked "You were trapped in the forest surrounded by vicious pokemon!"

Riley smiled at his mother. "Heh. Most of the pokemon in there aren't really that vicious. They're just afraid of capture and enslavement by humans. The real nasty customers learned to treat me with respect years ago" He explained, a hint of pride in his voice. He tapped the staff he held with one finger as he did so.

"Riley... " Calia sobbed again into her son's shoulder "...Riley…"

* * *

Calia had asked her son to come to her home nearly a half hour later once she had somewhat recovered. Riley had immediately stiffened into a statue of a teenager, something that greatly worried Calia.

"Mom… I have a job to do" Riley said "I can't just settle down and act like I've lived a human life. I haven't."

"Then don't settle. I just want to show you my home... Your home" Calia said, giving her son what was probably the millionth hug in an hour. "It's in Viridian… Would you be willing to come?"

"It took three days to get here from viridian." Riley objected.

"Maybe on foot" Jenny started as she came in. How the heck she knew what they were talking about, Riley had not a clue. "But in a car, we can probably get there in about an hour."

"...What's a car?" Riley asked, blinking in confusion.

Jenny and Calia started before that Jenny remembered that the boy was the opposite of a tech savvy person. Calia was looking at her son in a confused manner.

"Remember the devices that people were driving around in while in Pallet?" Jenny asked.

"Hmm?" Riley asked with a tilt to his head. Then, he put his fist in his palm in a gesture of an idea forming. "Ohhh yeah. Those things. Seriously, at least Rhydon have a reason for charging straight at people"

"You almost got run over?" Calia asked, worry and anger appeared on her face.

Riley huffed. "Nothing **almost** happened to me. Those things may be tougher to dodge than an angry rhyhorn, and I would know, but i easily backflipped over the thing. It would have to be going three times the speed to have a ghastly of a chance of so much as touching me."

Calia was stunned. He so casually talked about being able to jump a car that almost hit him, and he did not even know what they were! "You've been in a car before, Riley. Several times when you were little you wanted to go someplace, and I would take you" Riley's mother stated.

Riley gave her a sidelong glance, his blue eyes far more open than at first. "Really?" He asked. His mother gave him a smile and a nod. Her smile was calming. Riley wound up relaxing.

"Please spend some time with me at my home. I've been told you already have a job as part of the police force, but if you will, Jenny has agreed to give you a few days off the job." Calia pleaded. She heard Riley listen to his two pokemon, who were both on his shoulder now, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Well." he said "Seems we're all in agreement." Riley said, giving his mother a smile. "Yeah, we agree. Sounds like a great idea"

Calia stared in delight. Her son was coming home after thirteen years, albeit temporarily? She pulled him into yet another hug. "T-thank you…" She cried "T-thank you, my son…"

Riley could only awkwardly hug her back as thoughts raced through his head.

* * *

"One thing…" Riley muttered to Jenny as he and Yellow were about to get in the car. Jenny turned to him. "Why did you keep from telling me what you planned until you were about to bring us together?"

"Because I was afraid that you would be more inclined to refuse if you had advance notice. You don't tend to sit still, and giving that you don't have any memories of your life with humans, I had no real idea whether you would stick around to meet your mother."

Riley scowled. "I don't like it at all, but you're probably right." He responded gruffly before he got in the vehicle and sat down. He looked about in confusing until Yellow said something to him, and he pulled the door closed.

The last image Jenny had of the group was Amber saying something to Riley, probably something that would earn her some sort of friendly punishment.

As Jenny once again regretted her actions yet knowing this time that it was most likely for the best, Yellow sweatdropped as Riley had Amber by the scruff and frowned into her eyes. Amber was trying to get away, knowing **exactly** what Riley was about to do.

"Gah!"

"Oh come on. Get used to it" Riley smirked as he gave Amber another noogie. "I do it every time you insult me, and i crush you in a hug every time you sarcastically compliment me" he explained.

And Yellow sweatdropped again as she watched the teen try to use his seatbelt. Sighing at his defeat, the girl went and helped him. Riley rubbed the back of his neck and Calia saw just a hint of red on his cheeks. She smiled into the rearview mirror at him. She wondered what was up between the two of them. Or maybe he just liked doing things on his own.

The two did seem to fit together…

" _It's strange… I have really known my son for mere hours, and I'm already planning out how to help him into a relationship."_ Calia thought to herself. And those crazy scientists of old thought that wasn't a part of motherly instinct.

Why did this seem to have less of an impact than it should have? Was she simply in shock or so desperate for her son back that she could easily accept it? Calia was really not certain. All that mattered today was that her son had come back to her. He had a job already… Could she really let him go back to it?

" _Don't be foolish"_ Calia scolded herself " _My son is used to being free. He will want to leave soon, as far as i gather…"_

Calia decided to focus on the road for the time being.

"This car runs very well" Growlithe commented as they left the city. He seemed to regain his energy within minutes of leaving the city. Whatever effects that city had on the guy, it was debilitating to his mood. "Glad to have you back, Growlithe" Yellow said.

"What's been up with him?" Riley asked "He's been practically emotionless on the outside"

"We'll talk about it later" yellow simultaneously promised Riley and threatened Growlithe. The boys nodded.

Thirty minutes of listening to four girls talk at once, and Riley felt like knocking himself out lest he be in danger of death by conversation. It did not help that Yellow had to translate for the pokemon. Growlithe shared a look of pain with Riley.

"Glad you're here… I may not survive this…" Riley began quietly

"But at least we'll both die together" Growlithe finished.

Meanwhile, Scarlet had gone up to the front to talk to Calia, who had no clue what the little pichu with the ribbon was chattering about, Yellow was helping by translating while Riley tried to not be involved in conversation at all.

"Riley dear, how long did it take you to learn to understand pokemon?" his mother asked. This conversation was just getting **longer**. Growlithe shot Riley a look.

" _Good luck"_ His eyes said. Riley sighed in defeat. "I never really learned how… I hear them talking like they are humans. pokemon speak english to me. It's not like Yellow, who can read their minds and emotions instead".

"Why is it that you're the one being quiet?" Yellow asked, and they all saw Riley slump over. Goodness, he looked exhausted.

"Too…. much…. talking…" Riley murmured. Half an hour of mindless chatter that involved him was his limit. he could fight longer than that, but chatting…

Riley slumped over, defeated for the second time in years. The first by brute force, the second by crushing conversation seemingly designed to kill people like him. The most effective weapon ever.

"Oi!" Amber said, tackling Riley so that his back was against the seat. She inspected his eyes. They were closed, like he had actually fallen unconscious. The girls in the car blinked. Amber put a paw to his eyelid and pulled it up. He was completely unresponsive.

"...Whoa…" Scarlet murmured.

"Riley!" Amber and Yellow exclaimed as they shook him and tried to wake him, both extremely concerned for his health. Maybe he hadn't actually fully recovered?

Calia glanced back and saw what was up. She raised an eyebrow, and then she chuckled. "Oh, I've seen that before. Too many girls in one space and talking about something the boy isn't interested, some of them fall right asleep. Though I've never seen it be so violent and startling…"

"Huh. Never seen that before in my life" Yellow admitted.

"Wake up!" Amber shouted, giving the boy a good doubleslap that did absolutely nothing to wake him up.

To Growlithe's dismay, the girls eventually started talking again, and now he had nobody to share the pain with. "...I'm next…" Growlithe murmured as he laid down in his seat, his eyes drooping. "This is… the end…"

Growlithe passed out.

And the girls laughed the rest of the way to their destination.

* * *

"Here we are" Calia announced kindly, looking back. "Wake up the boys, would you?" She requested of Yellow, who went to do so. Smiling, Calia got out of the car and went to open her son's door. Riley was slowly waking up, rubbing his head.

"Growl...ith" Calia heard, and looked in to see her son's growlithe waking up as well… What was interesting was how silent Riley was when waking up. Perhaps he had stealth training. Calia frowned for a second at the thought that her son had been forced to fight battles over and over again… Living with wild pokemon must have done something to him for that. He had been deprived of his life. That made Calia feel a slight surge of anger.

But then Riley's expression of exhaustion vanished to be replaced by a calm look. He expertly picked up the growlithe in one arm, and his other pokemon jumped onto his shoulders. Calia thought of how cute they all looked together. A boy and his pokemon.

Riley at some point had explained that the pokeballs he carried were not for the pokemon he had. He had been very adamant that he did not own these pokemon, that they were not to be owned by anybody. The only point of the pokeballs was to ensure that no one could ever capture them again.

So saying they were **his** pokemon was not accurate, as Riley had repeatedly reminded his mother. He claimed no ownership of pokemon. There had actually been a dangerous gleam in his eye as he spoke of how wild pokemon were afraid of being enslaved by humans, and rightly so. Pokemon are known to mostly be sentient creatures. Humans simply had more control, and to Riley, unless those humans treated pokemon properly, that was unacceptable. For a moment, Calia felt fear looking at her son's eyes.

Having lived his entire life with pokemon, he would think like one. Of **course** he would not like humans much if pokemon didn't. Calia then felt sad. Her son knew exactly what pokemon went through on the behalf of humans. Calia knew that she would not be able to understand that after living so long as a human in a human owned world.

Her son was basically a pokemon. From what she had heard, he was tougher as well.

Riley viewed his mother's house. It was a short little building, and it looked a little beaten up. The house was… Cozy. It was small and cozy. This is where he had apparently spent the first four years of his life.

"This is our home" Riley heard his mother say as she walked up and put her hand on his shoulder behind where Amber sat. Riley did not stiffen this time. The door looked strong enough. Having eventually learned how to use doors because he had been with Delia for a while, He turned the knob.

It didn't open.

"...What's wrong with it?" Riley asked, pulling harder, then he sighed and raised his foot as if to kick.

"It's locked" Calia chuckled as she handed him a key. Riley looked in utter confusion at the key, and seemed to realize what it was. Amber started giggling. Scarlet looked from her to Yellow, and found her also nearing laughter.

"...what's going on?" Scarlet asked.

"Riley doesn't know how to use keys!" Amber cried out in elation. Calia and Scarlet sweatdropped as Riley once more tried to fit the key in backwards. The others were laughing save Growlithe, who still looked groggy.

Riley flinched and turned it around. This time, it jammed. It wouldn't move. Calia was just silent for a moment before smiling. "Let me help you" She offered, and took Riley's place as the boy sheepishly hung his head.

Calia got the key unstuck in about five seconds and expertly turned it. The door opened and she stepped aside for her boy. "Go on in" She requested, giving the group a smile. Riley immediately complied, walking into the very cozy home. The room immediately opened on the right to show a couch and television. A hall to the left went to a few rooms. Straight ahead was a kitchen and a back door to a small backyard.

It was small, but it was nice on the inside. Riley would have preferred an open location, but this was still nice. Delia's home had been bigger, but even so…

"This is your home?" Riley asked, giving his mother a smile to show that he was not disappointed but content.

His mother smiled back at him in a manner that suggested that she was still overjoyed at having her son back. Life would not go back to normal for her quickly, considering that her son would be leaving to continue travelling. Just like how a pokemon trainer would. "It's **our** home" She insisted "You are free to come here at any time you want to, Riley"

Calia then went to a drawer next to the wall and pulled open the top drawer, where she brought out a little key, just like the house key from earlier. She came back to Riley and gave it to him. She knew he was bad with keys for some reason, but he would need this. "This is an extra house key. You should keep it on you if you come back and for some reason i'm not home" She told him.

Riley accepted the key warily, almost as if he didn't trust the thing, but he put it in a secret little pocket in his belt. "Thank you… mom" Riley said. He continued looking around. he recognized the television as what Yellow was using back in that hotel, but he had no idea how to operate it. Several devices sat on the counter of the kitchen, possibly for preparing food.

Yellow stayed back as much as possible. Those two needed some time. She noticed that growlithe was doing the same. Her own pokemon were being quiet in their pokeballs as they watched. Yellow's smile went unbroken for the next few hours as Riley was shown his new home.

"How did you end up in the hospital?" Riley heard his mother ask. He looked up from his lunch, which he had tried and failed to eat using proper manners. He looked down.

"Seems I've caused team rocket a lot of trouble" Riley began, and his mother froze "Their grunts couldn't stop me, so they set someone tougher after me. Somebody stronger than me. I barely survived the blood loss from his saws. Really, that's my own fault. Get hit once, shame on him. Git hit three times, shame on me. Twice"

"Y-you've gotten tangled up in that mess?" Calia stammered

"It's my job to protect pokemon. Amber and Growlithe were being kept by team rocket, and Scarlet almost was." Riley responded almost emotionlessly.

"Calia's back!" Riley heard, and two pokemon rushed out of a room and practically right into his mother's arms. The yellow and blue blur had been met with open arms. A green and tannish blur came up to Riley. "Who's this?"

The two pokemon were a manectric and a leafeon. The two pokemon viewed the newcomer. "Who's this?" They asked together. They were about the age of adults for their species, about the same age, but a lifestyle of being pampered and living as pets had clearly kept them as the equivalent of children in terms of impulsiveness and excitement.

Riley got to his knees to make him a little more level with the two pokemon, even though he still was much taller than them. "My name's Riley." the teen told the pokemon. "I'm Calia's son. I… I came back" he finished.

There was much blinking before…

"Another one for the family!" the female manectric yowled in delight, jumping on Riley and tackling him. The boy allowed himself to go down and was getting licked in the face by the dog-like pokemon. Riley closed his eyes as he started getting licked in the face. He was not ticklish. Not after that one time…

Yeah. That was not a necessary thought to have. The male leafeon came up to him and sniffed him. Riley scratched the both of them behind the ears. "You guys live with my mom, huh?" He asked. They were already to the point of nuzzling him while Scarlet escaped death by excited licking. Amber was not so lucky because she had not jumped away when Riley got tackled.

"You're on my leg, Riley!" Amber screeched as the boy's tough shoulder blade squished her paw between it and what was thankfully carpet.

"Oops!" Riley exclaimed, and sat up a bit while Amber escaped and started licking her paw. "That hurt. You're heavy!" Amber whined as she favored her paw. She saw Riley's raised eyebrow way too late.

"Let me go!" Amber cried out as she was lifted up before she could escape. Riley turned to the pokemon who were still wagging their tails at him. "You guys like licking things right?" Riley asked mischievously.

"No! Don't!" Amber cried out as Riley presented her face to the manectric, the eevee's struggles not doing anything at all. She was screwed. Manectric proceeded to greet Amber in the way he was accustomed to: Giving them a hearty greeting lick.

"Eeewwww!"

Riley finished greeting the pokemon, who did not seem to have nicknames at all, and then, to the great amusement of everyone, his stomach growled powerfully.

Riley's eyes shadowed and his left eye twitched. "...You said i was in intensive care for two days?" Riley inquired casually, though there was an edge to it as everyone stopped laughing at Amber and Riley and realized the problem.

"Oh Arceus! You're starving, right?" Calia and Yellow asked, and the pair immediately dragged Riley's form over to the kitchen and set to work. While he leaned on the side of the counter, Yellow prepared a lunch of… Pancakes? While Calia prepared something entirely different that Growlithe could not see, but it smelled brilliant. It was impressive.

Yellow was currently considering the needless cliche of a girl cooking for a boy, but she shrugged it off. Two things kept her from having Riley help; he was starving beyond being able to help, and as far as she knew, it was unsafe for Riley to even be near a kitchen. According to Delia of course.

Now Yellow wondered what was with Riley. He was incredibly strong, but was rendered unconscious by three things; blood loss, hunger, and for some reason, long conversations. Growlithe was the same in the latter regard. " _Boys…"_ Yellow thought to herself, smiling. Why was she making pancakes? The first thing that had wound up in her hand when she had searched a drawer without looking had been pancake batter. Calia had wound up making bacon when she saw what Yellow was making.

Thinking of boys in detail was new for Yellow. Riley was such a tough guy, and he managed to look cool at most times… If he wasn't being crushed by one of Amber's comments or otherwise looking beaten down.

Yellow put the thoughts aside as simply understanding the person she was travelling with.

Lunch was ready in a short while, far faster than pancakes can usually be made in. A huge stacked plate of pancakes and bacon was set in front of Riley, who seemed to revitalize a bit at the smell. Yellow was the one to get him to wake up… by shaking his head around with her hand. She herself had gained a few habits on how to treat this particular boy after constantly seeing Amber smack him around.

"Come on, up you get, sleepyhead." Yellow called, her voice echoing in Riley's mind as he woke up only to hear his stomach growl once more. Then, he smelled something really good. He pushed off the ground to see something that looked **incredibly** tasty sitting on the counter.

His mother waved him forward with a smile on her face.

Yellow and Calia then sweatdropped at the ferocity that Riley attacked the food. Lack of manners plus needing food at a constant rate because of his energy use, plus what was probably the result of not having gone hungry very often. If he really could take care of himself that well. Plus, he had mentioned having a metagross as a teacher, a rare and incredibly intelligent species of pokemon that has no proper gender and an indefinite lifespan. Riley probably knew how to survive just fine.

Now that he had gone hungry, Calia might have been about to lose every ounce of food in the house. That was what the two human women feared, but he thankfully seemed satisfied after finishing that massive plate of food.

"That was great! What was it?" Riley inquired. He had scarfed food down without knowing what it was whatsoever.

" _Poor guy"_ Yellow though.

" _He doesn't know what pancakes are… He has certainly been deprived"_ Calia thought.

"Those are pancakes, as well as bacon" Calia, Yellow, Growlithe, and the real shocker, Amber said at once. She drew everyone but Calia's eyes.

"What?" Amber asked "Humans had me captive. Of **course** i know a few things about humans."

The others decided to just accept that. Calia decided to ignore what had just happened. She was the only one in the house that could not understand pokemon at all. It was sad, really. She felt something on her leg, and saw her leafeon rubbing against her comfortingly. Calia got on a knee and scratched his ears, causing the grass type to purr in contentment.

Riley came over to his mother, really had something to say to her son. "You have been so accepting of me" both said at exactly the same time.

Scarlet, having appeared on yellow's shoulder, whispered to Yellow: "They're a lot alike, minus his life with just pokemon" She commented. Yellow nodded as the two others struggled to decide on who would speak first. Finally, Riley decided to go first.

"My difference from living among just pokemon… I expected you to worry that I would…" Riley started, but it was finally too much for him. This was his freaking mother, who he had been away from from thirteen years and remembered absolutely nothing about her, followed by learning that humans were terrible creatures that enslaved pokemon, and then being introduced to humans through team rocket…

And his mother was absolutely amazing.

The boy actually felt like a boy now. His mother decided to pull him close, and now Riley did not so much as flinch. The teen did not cry. He never cried. His mother stroked his hair slowly. "After learning that you had grown up being taught that humans were all terrible, I though that you would automatically hate me." his mother admitted "I'm so, so glad that you don't… Thank you, my son."

"Thank you... mother."

" _He sounds so professional, but he has an attitude. A mix of being carefree and having a metagross as a teacher, I suppose"_ Calia thought when they broke apart. Her son had no tears in his eyes, but that made sense to her. He was a fighter. He was not supposed to cry.

Riley pulled Manectric and Leafeon aside. "How does my mother treat you?" he whispered. They seemed to like her, but he wanted to know exactly what he was dealing with. Amber was with him, though Scarlet and Growlithe were sticking around the others. Amber and the leafeon had been talking about evolution and such.

"Your mom? She's great! She pays attention to us, feeds us, gets us what we need, even if she can't understand us." Manectric said. That was encouraging.

"She loves us a lot and we love her as well. She treats us right" Leafeon continued. That was definitely good to hear.

Riley smiled. "That's great. Thank you." he replied "I was confident before, but there is no doubting it now.."

Riley looked towards the entrance to the kitchen where the others were waiting. "I can definitely trust my mother."

* * *

It was dinnertime. Riley had agreed to stay the night before heading back to Pewter and then onward. For now, Calia wanted to hear each and every detail of what Riley had gone through. She was disappointed to hear that her son was not supposed to disclose some information about his life prior to getting out of there and back to human civilization.

"But once, I snuck into a movie theater. It was some sort of movie about… something. Not really sure, actually. All i learned is that prophecies are cliche as all get out" Riley commented, and his mother was appalled that he so casually snuck into a movie without paying.

But Riley continued with running from Yellow, freeing a bunch of pokemon including Growlithe, followed by rescuing amber and taking apart a few rocket grunts and their pokemon with ease. Calia learned that her son was an incredible fighter, capable of knocking out pokemon with ease and humans with even greater ease. He had only been defeated three times since, once against the mercenary those rocket grunts sent after him, once by boring conversation, and once by hunger.

In other words, one real defeat in years of training.

Riley told them of Tropius, the riolu and Metagross, and then about the different pokemon he had met throughout his life. Dragon types, rare pokemon, personal friends, teachers, and acquaintances. It was really quite amazing. he was better off without humans than with. He was fine without his mother. That was a depressing thought

"Did you ever look for me?" Calia eventually asked, sounding slightly desperate at this point. Riley stopped smiling and began to look emotionless. "I have no memories of a human life. I did not know who you were until I met you today, and I did not know i was even from the human world until I was ten. My childhood was allowed to be carefree" He answered flatly.

And here Calia was thinking that these pokemon had taken care of her son. Maybe they had. Maybe they had not. The point remained that Riley had never tried to find her. Calia was ready to cry again.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Riley's blue eyes pierced hers. "Mom, I had no way of finding you, and I needed to remain out of society until I was ready to head out. Even then, I was worried. I had no idea who you were, what you were like, if i could trust you to treat pokemon properly. I was honestly scared." he admitted.

Calia sniffed and gave her son another hug. It was nearing dinnertime. "Don't ask me to cook. Last time I tried to cook, I learned to fear Delia Ketchum" Riley protested, backing away with his hands in the air in a position of surrender.

Calia laughed, and then stopped. "Delia?" Calia asked. She knew that name. Riley nodded. Calia smiled, remembering the name. "I used to be friends with her in high school" She explained.

Riley blinked. "First, uh… High school? And then… You knew Delia? She let me stay with her for a while after I got Amber and Growlithe's trackers removed" He questioned his mother. Calia laughed at that.

"She's always been nice" Calia stated, thinking of the girl who tried to help plenty of people, though she had a bit of a-

"She got extremely angry at me when I epically failed at cooking." Riley followed up "Actually, she's pretty much the only human that scares me."

"What about that mercenary guy that almost killed you?" Scarlet asked as she re-tightened the bow on her ear that hid her spikes. Riley shrugged.

"It was my own stupidity that nearly killed me. I kept fighting rather than getting medical attention. The guy himself doesn't scare me at all." Riley explained, telling the truth as far as the group could tell. Not even Amber had a response for that.

"Well…" Calia started slowly "What do you want for dinner?"

Yellow smiled.

* * *

 **And... Scene!**

 **Characters introduced today: Calia Oras and Zach. I hope this chapter was satisfactory. I'm going to have to cut this short because Jango DID annoy Amber further, and it's not pretty. The old days of book two are long gone for these guys... *Sighs***

 **By the way, Pigeoncracker is not beta reading several chapters, as he is quite busy.**

 **At any rate, please continue to review and follow and whatever you guys want to do after reading this chapter. The reviews are my favorite though, I love those so much.**

 **And OCs are to be sent in by PM preferably because some people read the reviews to a story and spoilers are a thing that exist. If only I could get better at avoiding spoilers, but Jango is NOT making it easy.**

 **BOOM!**

 **And... That's my cue to leave and save my house from utter destruction. Remember to like, favorite, and subscri-... That's youtube. sorry. Remember to review, follow if you want to, and enjoy my story in the future!**


	8. Chapter Eight: The White Kunai

**Hey, you lot! Jango here. I'll be taking care of reviews today. Alone. Hyper's too busy with his little oneshot to answer these reviews at this time.**

 **Amber: And I will be keeping him in line. In case Jango forgot.**

 **Jango: You ruin my fun all the time.**

 **Amber: That's my job.**

 **Jango: Anyw** **ays... It's just J 1z Da Leg3nd today. Yeah, those double word things were odd to see. I'll make a note for Hyper. "Make... Chapters... Longer..." Got it!**

 **Amber: Idiot. *Takes note away and destroys the part of the paper with the note.* he said the chapters were a bit long, meaning he might want us to shorten them.**

 **Jango: Pfft... That's not going to happen.**

 **Amber: Probably not... Let's just start the chapter before we fall into awkward silence.**

 **Jango: And we all hate awkward silences... especially YOU, small fry.**

 **Amber: Jango!**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight: The White Kunai**

Riley finished his meal ten times faster than the others, even the pokemon. The steak had been brilliant, and the others barely had time to show him that he could put salt and pepper on it before it was gone. The vegetables went just as quickly, surprising Riley's mother.

Her jaw hung open. "He actually eats his vegetables…" she murmured, utterly stunned. The peppers and onions and other things that had gone into the side of vegetables was eaten without complaint. Even the broccoli was gone.

Riley leaned back with his hands behind his head in contentment as the others gawked at him. They had all stopped eating, which Riley was confused by. "What?" he asked.

Silence.

"Okay, I guess eating fast is weird?"

"..Normally, scarfing down your food would be normal for a starving kid" Yellow started.

"...But you cleaned your plate in like two minutes" Scarlet finished, absently tightening her red ribbon before slowly continuing to eat her own pokemon food. Riley smiled and held his plate out for seconds, causing all but Growlithe to sweatdrop.

* * *

Riley's room was quite comfortable, and had actually contained a bed in his size, but there were no clouds out, and it was warm tonight. He wanted to sleep on the roof like he would sleep in the high branches of a tree.

Calia told him that her house had no easy way to the roof, and offered to get her son a ladder, but she got a little gift in the sight of Riley jumping, putting his right foot on a fence post, and leaping to the roof with minimal impact, where he climbed easily to a nice spot and laid down.

He bid his mother good night and looked up to view the constellations while Calia gave her son another smile and went to fetch Amber. Riley had told his mother everything about Amber's nightmares (earning himself a smack from said eevee), but she knew to bring Amber to Riley.

The eevee was watching television with everyone else, enjoying the program, but was surprised when Calia picked her up gently. "Time for bed" Calia cooed as she started carrying Amber towards the door to get outside.

"No way! I can stay awake longer!" Amber yowled out, but Calia had no idea what she was saying. She did know that it was a protest, however.

"Well, my son is going to sleep right now and you should probably stay with him" Calia reasoned, sobering the eevee. Even she knew not to argue with a mother. Besides, Riley was the only one who could stop her nightmares for some reason.

Amber took a moment once they got outside to realize that the boy was on the roof and therefore stupidly difficult to reach. "hey!" she called up from Calia's arms, getting the boy to open an eye and look down at his companion.

"Oh, hey Amber. Ready for some rest?" Riley responded with a wave.

"If only I could get up there?" Amber responded, seeing nothing to get to the roof of the house. "How the heck did **you** get up there?" she asked.

"I jumped."

"You **jumped**? That's really high."

"Not as high as some of the trees you've seen me jump up into" Riley retorted "Did you want mom to throw you or something?"

Calia started. "Why would I throw her? She's so sweet and little" She asked, cuddling the little eevee, having taken a liking to the apparently adorable little fox. Riley blinked in response.

"You're calling **that** furry ball of sass and attitude sweet?" he asked, drawing his mother's gaze down to said furball, who gave her the best adorable eevee stare she possibly could, which was pretty adorable and disarming.

"Is that so?" Calia asked, fooled by Amber's gaze. **Nothing** could be more sweet and innocent than something with that look. Amber gave Riley a smug look when Calia looked away.

" _Loooosseerr,"_ Amber thought at Riley, even knowing that the boy could not read her thoughts.

" _Don't get so cocky, mom'll figure you out eventually"_ Riley thought at Amber, knowing what she was thinking. At least he got the general idea. "Get up here already."

With some help from Calia, Amber got herself up on the roof, almost slipping, much to the alarm of all three present before Amber managed to stop falling and start darting towards Riley. "Don't let me fall!" Amber cried out, clinging to the boy's shirt for her life, even though she was no longer in danger. Fear overriding her attitude.

Riley smiled and wrapped his arm around the eevee and held her tight against him, waving a good night to his mother before putting that arm around Amber as well. Squeezing her gently, the boy closed his eyes.

Comforted by the warmth that Riley had available, Amber soon closed her eyes as well, knowing that no nightmares would plague her.

* * *

Her dreams were a simple white coloring rather than the torture that Amber used to go through every night. She still prepared for a moment for that torture, but as of recently she did not have to deal with it.

" _It was probably a good thing that Yellow forced the doctors to let me sleep with him."_ Amber thought to herself as she considered how horrid those nights would have been without the boy to stay with him.

Amber shivered as a presence made its way into her dream, and she turned on her paws to find… Something. Almost like a gap in reality, a twisting opening of swirling black and red color. Maybe a part of her was out of Riley's grip?

Something was standing near it, it's form constantly shifting. What the heck was this thing? "Who the hell are you!?" Amber screeched at it, backing away from the freaky creature. It had a poofy collar, and was covered in spikes. A large fish tail came out from behind it. The whole creature flickered and left afterimages, and was completely black besides its burning… amber colored eyes.

Amber had gotten her name for her eyes.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" Amber asked, still backing up. No matter how she moved, the proximity of the thing would remain the same. That is, until the freaky hybrid creature started walking towards her.

"Get away!" Amber shouted, still backing away to no avail.

" **You will need to use your abilities soon…** " a disembodied voice called out to Amber, causing her to flinch. "What abilities!?" Amber retorted, now trying to sound intimidating. No reaction from the monster.

" **You will be forced to take action eventually** ," the voice said as the creature in front of her split into three walking in different directions and were now recognizable. Each was a pokemon, and each had glowing amber-colored eyes.

"Riley…" Amber whimpered, trying to make herself small as the three pokemon advanced "Help…"

" **Defend yourself** "

The spiked pokemon walked up to Amber, who was still unable to escape them. The cowering eevee shrank away as it raised a paw, it's spiked collar and fur bristling as it began to place its paw on Amber's head.

" **For when your guardian cannot move quickly enough, you must surpass his speed** ," the voice said as Amber began to cry out. A powerful pain erupted in her head and the smoky being in front of her seemed to dissolve into energy and flow right into her head, through it, and down to her necklace. Amber spared a look through the pain, having experienced far worse in a dream before, and saw the yellow piece being filled with energy. There was a brilliant flash, and Amber was thrown back as the first pokemon flickered one last time and vanished.

then the pokemon with the extremely fluffy collar and tail and more fluffy fur coming form its head stepped up to Amber, who knew exactly what would happen now, except for the message.

" **For when your guardian cannot stand the heat, you must be immune** ," The voice said as Amber once again experienced the same pain as the red piece of her necklace. There was a powerful warmth in her body, burning, but survivable. Amber's yowl of pain was over quickly, as she was left to breath heavily and wait for what she knew would happen next. With two pieces of her necklace shining, the third smoky pokemon approached her, one with fins around its head and a large fish tail.

" **For when your guardian cannot breathe, you must breath for him** " the voice finished, Amber allowing the paw to touch her head because she had no choice and once more felt intense pain at the energy flowing into her. Her third piece shone with an azure blue as she felt strange throughout her entire body, almost as if it was fluctuating a bit. It was painful, but now Amber found it easier to hang on, gritting her teeth. It was like her pain tolerance had been increased powerfully.

Finally, the presence retracted and Amber felt back to normal. She collapsed in her dreamscape before feeling her body fade away as the dream went back to nothing but white silence. She was too exhausted to understand what had happened or ask questions.

* * *

Pain. Riley was feeling pain in his arms. He ignored this for a while until he finally realized that sleep was not about to return to him with the sun in his eyes the way it was. He opened his eyes to a beautiful sunrise. The sun shone yellow surrounded by orange clouds in surprisingly reflected shapes. by that, Riley was seeing very similar clouds on the right and left sides as the sun.

After taking in the yellow, orange, and red, Riley checked up on Amber. His arms had some blood coming off of several puncture wounds, and his arms were pushed away from the eevee. There were also different hairs on his shirt around the eevee, red, cream, and blue. The red ones were longer than an eevee's fur, and the blue ones were shorter. Whatever the heck that meant, Riley had zero clue.

whatever the origin of these furs were, Riley disregarded the situation and readjusted his grip on the eevee, noting how she snuggled up against his arm in her sleep. A bright smile lit up the boy's face as Amber acted in her normal adorable way even in sleep. Her attitude really kept things different when it came to experience.

And his mother was fooled by that adorable eevee eyes trick. Truth be told, sometimes Riley was as well. Riley gave another smile and held Amber tight against his chest again, before realizing that he was, in fact, bleeding on her, and pulled his arms away. The eevee was in no danger of falling.

After another hour of peace, Riley's ears detected sounds of food being prepared underneath him. His spontaneous reaction to the sound of silverware and plates already taking effect, Riley gripped Amber in one arm and lightly leaped to the ground with no consequences.

Keeping the bleeding parts of his arm away from Amber so that she would have less blood on her than she already did. He opened the door wide with that crazy grin. needless to say, when six heads peeked around the corner in unison at different distances in the room, they either freaked out or got the wrong idea.

"Riley! What on earth happened to you!?" Calia shouted

"Riley? What's all that blood from!?" Yellow freaked out.

Scarlet just froze.

Manectric got the wrong idea **immediately** as to the source if the blood. Leafeon wound up nudging his female friend and pointed out that Riley had wounds in his arms. There was much blushing on the side of the manectric as she realized that she had nearly blurted out something she was glad she hadn't.

Growlithe had also had a single moment of getting the wrong idea, but he managed to shake his head and clear that thought out of the way.

The girls aside from Manectric were utterly appalled at how Riley looked, with bloodied arms and waving and grinning like a maniac with an eevee in his arms that had some of his blood on her. The sleeping eevee quickly awoke to see the female humans right up in her face, or to be more accurate, Riley's face.

"Whoa!" Riley exclaimed as his mother practically attacked him with bandages that she had procured from somewhere somehow. Both girls worriedly asked what the heck he had gotten himself into while Amber took an opening and escaped and checked herself.

"Just woke up with some injuries, like I had been given the porcupine treatment" Riley explained casually, as if something like that was perfectly normal and would not bring up more questions.

He was spared from those questions temporarily by Amber realizing she had a bunch of blood on her. "Gross!" Amber shouted, trying to jump away from herself "Gross gross gross! You **bled** on me!? What is wrong with you, Riley?"

She turned towards him, murder in her eyes, and her fur stood up a bit in a way that looked slightly unusual. Riley immediately stepped back with his hands in the air. He was surrendering. "I don't know what hurt me! I just had these spike wounds when I woke up, and you had my blood on you!" he protested.

"Get over here!" Amber chased the boy away just as his mother finished bandaging his deeper wounds, having used impressive speed while bandaging. Yellow likened her to a ninja with that first aid kit. Why Riley was running from an eevee was beyond them, but there was a big difference between fighting an angry pokemon and an angry girl. One was easy for Riley, the other was not.

Not that he would really care about gender while taking down enemies. But when girls got angry, they got stronger, as Riley had learned after angering a mother pokemon once. It had been a mistake. Yellow seemed deadly when stern, though he had yet to see her angry, and something about that " _Kill you dead"_ aura a girl emits when angry just repels him.

Anyways, the next time the others saw Riley he had some scratches on his face, some of which were also bleeding. His mother had sighed and bandaged him up more, looking disapprovingly at Amber, the innocent illusion completely gone.

Amber could have sworn the look Riley was shooting at her mimicked her own smug look of victory. She felt the effects of losing that particular battle and sulked for a bit. After that blew over, Riley decided it was time to head back to Pewter city.

Once again, Yellow's attention was pulled by the raging and incoherent thoughts of Growlithe, who had gotten a faraway look in his eyes once more at the name of Pewter City. She could not discern what was wrong with him, but something traumatizing had definitely happened to Growlithe there.

She wanted to ask, but something held her back. Something was very wrong with Growlithe, and she could not properly read his thoughts. It was almost scary how incoherent the thoughts in his head were. Her worry increased more when his movements became more forced and somewhat robotic.

Breakfast was served, and Calia offered to take Riley and the others back to Pewter city, an offer which everyone took, each for different reasons. Despite being able to say goodbye to her son later, she still brought him into a crushing hug.

"...I don't know if I will ever really comprehend that I have my son back…" Calia cried into his shoulder. She slowly pulled away and wiped her eyes. "just stay safe, all right?" She asked. Riley gave her a smile. "Of course… Mom," he replied. Calling her his mother no longer gave off a strange feeling. It was official, he considered her his mother.

This got Calia crying harder, mostly in relief and happiness while Riley rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her. Eventually, he got his mother to let him into the car, which placed the boy next to Growlithe on the middle seat and Yellow on the right front seat.

Riley patted the only other male in the car: Growlithe. "Glad you're here buddy" Riley murmured, and then froze as he looked down at the dog pokemon, who had closed his eyes and had fallen asleep. He had been acting strange lately, but **this** , this was not acceptable.

"Oooohhhh no you don't" Riley exclaimed, picking up the dog pokemon. "You are **not** leaving me to the mercy of four girls in a cramped vehicle. If I suffer, you are suffering too!"

The girls began to laugh as Riley shook the dog back into the waking world. Growlithe looked at Riley, and Riley noticed that Growlithe had a weird and dull look in his eyes. "Growlithe, are you all right?" he asked, worried.

Yellow stopped giggling as the fire type mumbled something under his breath that only Riley, Amber, and Scarlet could pick up. "Pewter…" he mumbled, which had three brows raise as a result.

"Apparently…" Riley muttered as Growlithe actually fell asleep in Riley's hands "he has something against Pewter city." The boy was worried about Growlithe's apparent lack of energy, but sighed and put Growlithe in his lap like a puppy.

Followed by Riley realizing that he was **still** in a vehicle full of girls. He groaned. This could get ugly…

LINE BREAK

Jenny met the others as they came in. Well, she met Calia and Yellow. What she saw those two pull out of the backseat was a heavily bandaged drooling boy with swirls for eyes, who was managing to clutch a growlithe even while unconscious.

"What the heck happened here!?" Jenny asked, thinking they would have to take the apparently accident-prone teen to the hospital again.

"He was in a car full of us girls! What do you think happened?" Amber responded cheerfully with a tilt to her head, ears perked and an extremely happy and cute expression. Jenny didn't understand a word. Yellow smiled, humor evident in her face.

Jenny blinked. Since that girl had met Riley, she laughed and showed amusement more. She had probably picked up a few more ways of thinking. More likely to joke around. She had never seen the girl so amused by a boy's plight. " _he does look funny like that, though…"_ Jenny thought to herself.

Riley and Growlithe blinked awake at the sense of fresh air, both finding a bunch of girls standing over the two boys in a circle. Their reaction was similar to how a girl may react when surrounded by boys. "Well, if this isn't an interesting way to wake up" Riley commented.

"Interesting…" Growlithe mumbled. Riley frowned in concern at his friend. But last time, he had only muttered something about Pewter City. It was strange that this city would have such a bad… wait…

"Growlithe, what's wrong with Pewter?" Riley asked, trying to get something out of his friend other than useless mumbles. The fire dog's eyes drooped and he looked away into the distance. Riley discreetly followed his gaze to a large building in the distance, like a mansion. It was clearly visible on a hill, away from the city, and could only be seen because this was the border between the residential and the area with the 'really freaking large buildings', as Riley tended to call them. He could probably scale one, but he had no idea what kind of repercussions it would involve.

Riley raised his eyebrow at the growlithe, thinking that it was either a coincidence or a clue. Probably the former, but Riley still thought about it. Yellow jolted for a moment as a single coherent thought became clear as he looked to the mansion, realizing that it was not a coincidence at all. He had thought about that mansion, and it clearly had something to do with why he was so… lifeless today.

But neither human spoke. Instead, Riley put the growlithe down and stood up to say goodbye to his mother again. Yellow and Jenny both smiled as Riley then had to eventually escape because his mother would **not** let go of him.

"Be safe. I love you." Calia told Riley, who smiled and nodded to her. One more embrace, and Calia finally got in her car and drove back to Viridian. Riley waved after his mother, a warm expression on his face. He was happy. His mother was great, treated pokemon well, and he loved her. She loved him. The kind of love that a metagross really can't give.

Kangaskhan and Tropius had been similar figures, though. Riley had grown up without a genetic mother, but he did have people who would fit the bill. Each of them would receive constant visits from Riley, that was for certain.

Jenny led the kids and their pokemon into the police office again. Riley and Yellow had one thing on their mind. "Officer, is there something wrong with the mansion past the city?" Yellow asked before Riley could. Riley blinked, mouth half open, before crossing his arms and listening.

Jenny looked an extremely convenient map on the wall. "That… Is the site of the last murder of who people fearfully called the white ninja. An assassin. Apparently wore white clothing and still managed to sneak around in the dark and take out his enemies with perfect precision. The wealthy feared being targeted by him even more than they feared the white saw, as they called the man that nearly killed Riley" she explained.

Yellow was nodding, remembering that particular case. She had been involved in trying to find him, but nobody could find a trace at all until one single mistake brought him down.

"Still around?" Riley asked, and the women shook their heads. "He's in jail for life now" Yellow informed the boy "No name, at least, not on record. Makes it a bit difficult, but he was convicted of all the murders he committed during his reign as the most feared bounty hunter."

"How, if nobody could find him?" Riley asked, looking at the map although he had no clue what he was looking for or at. Not that he knew what jail was either despite seeing a few notes on it in his book. Something he had been reading a little less lately. Mostly due to the murder attempt and the mother situation. One bad, one good.

"He made a mistake" Yellow repeated "he left his weapon, a weapon that only he has, at the scene of the crime. Right at his victim's feet. The owner of **that** mansion"

Riley rubbed his neck. "Rookie mistake…" he muttered " **I've** never left my weapon anywhere…"

Most of the girls stared. " **That's** what you care about!?" Scarlet and Yellow inquired simultaneously. They were incredulous. Jenny's question died in her throat as the others beat her to it. Riley shrugged in response.

"Some cop you are…" Amber muttered, facepawing so hard she left a mark on her face. Now Riley's demeanor turned sheepish as he realized that he had completely gone over the fact that somebody **died**.

"Ah… Sorry, everyone…" Riley apologized, and now everybody was shocked. Growlithe, who had been ready to growl, also stopped at the boy's unorthodox apology. "I know I do that often… What else do I need to know?"

It seemed to the others that Riley had an actual heart under all of that attitude. Maybe pokemon mattered more to him, but even so, he could feel bad for a human. Sometimes it was just hard for him. Old habits told him that humans were bad of course, but even that was not so harsh as to wish them all dead.

"You're an idiot…" Amber started, dragging her paw down her snout "But at least you corrected yourself." the eevee sighed. Scarlet smiled and nuzzled the boy, happy that he fixed his little attitude for the moment.

"At any rate, it's over now" Jenny started, but Yellow was the one to hold up a finger.

"Well, Growlithe had been thinking about it when Riley asked what was wrong" Yellow reminded the officer, who had forgotten about the other conversation. Jenny nodded and decided to answer Riley's question.

"Mr. Rumma was both a millionaire and one of the police force's best detectives." Jenny began "He had for a long time been working to reveal the identity of the white ninja assassin, but he was the only one to get past Mr. Rumma at every turn. The reason, as we now know, is that this assassin never had any home, or name, or anything that might identify him ever in any way whatsoever"

"But he must have gotten tired of the detective after him at all times, and decided to kill him." Jenny continued, and Growlithe suddenly appeared very troubled. "But he left his weapon at the scene, identifying him as the killer without any debate, and murdering a high-level international detective like that literally put this entire half of the planet on high alert. He was guaranteed to be caught eventually."

After Jenny finished that story, Riley was only concerned about one thing. "What does this have to do with Growlithe?" he asked, picking the emotionless dog up in his arms with concern on his face. Growlithe just muttered something and rested his chin against Riley's arm.

Jenny moved to an extremely coincidental and expensive looking computer and started tapping away at it. The flat screen started flashing a bunch of pictures. A man and his arcanine standing in front of a mansion, an image that had Growlithe perking up, and two more images. One of a girl and a very familiar growlithe, and another of the arcanine letting a much younger but still familiar growlithe playing on him.

Riley started, looking at the very happy pictures. His eyes softened. This version of Growlithe seemed so happy and carefree, and apparently had a father to be with… Was it time for another family reunion? Riley stroked Growlithe's spine slowly, trying to make him feel better. Then, something much worse occurred to Riley.

"...What happened to the arcanine?" Riley asked, still trying to soothe Growlithe, who was doing his best **not** to enjoy the feeling of being petted like that. Growlithe began to think a little clearer as he remembered who he had for so long tried to forget.

"He was k-" Growlithe began to say

"He was gravely injured, near death, but with quite a bit of care, Miss Rumma, his daughter, managed to save his life" Jenny revealed, much to Growlithe's shock. His father… was supposed to be dead!

"Cassidy Rumma and Arcanine have been living in the mansion still, as it was given to her via Mr. Rumma's will. He had written it before he died, almost as if he had known he was in danger. The growlithe, however, was later stolen by team rocket, having fled the supposed safety of the house and gotten cornered by team rocket, as a witness explained to the police around the same time" Jenny finished.

All eyes turned to Growlithe. "And I guess that's you…" Riley murmured. He squeezed Growlithe tightly. "You almost said your dad was killed, right? Hey… it's all right…" Riley tried to sooth the growlithe, who had begun to cry with mixed emotions. His father was alive…

Yellow looked to Jenny. "Could you give this Cassidy a call? I think we will be paying a visit."

Growlithe looked towards Yellow, shock on his face. These people would be willing to bring him home? But…

Yellow looked to him after catching his next thought. "You don't want to go to the house?" Yellow asked, "But you **do** want to see them?"

Growlithe sighed, relieved. She understood. She could understand pokemon. Riley could as well, but not on such an emotional level. Yellow could literally tap into the emotions of pokemon, making it so easy for her to understand them.

"Scratch that, Officer" Yellow called to Jenny "Tell Cassidy and Arcanine to meet us in the park."

"Do you want this to be a surprise?" Riley asked Growlithe, his infectious good mood radiating off of him. Growlithe, however, shook his head no. That simply would not be nice. Riley in turn relayed that 'no' to Jenny, and the officer walked away to make the call.

Yellow smiled, rubbing Growlithe's head. said fire type had gone from conflicted and unreadable to hopeful and happy. Both humans smiled at seeing that as they walked out of the police station. Eventually, Riley wound up putting the dog pokemon down as Growlithe was actually gaining some energy.

The only problem was how he flinched whenever he looked up to the mansion, but he refused to talk about that. The others changed the topic eventually.

"Hey, Growlithe. What's your dad like?" she asked.

Growlithe smiled as he remembered. "Last I saw him was about a year ago before team rocket took away whatever childish innocence I had… He was kind, patient, could move on from disaster, and was incredibly durable in a fight. He always played when I wanted to…" Growlithe said, his voice growing sadder and quieter over time. The days of innocent childish actions were forever gone, as far as Growlithe knew.

"I was caught looking as he was struck deep with a blade at impossible speeds. He collapsed, and I tried to get him to safety, but he was so much bigger and I couldn't move him. He was bleeding a lot, and I couldn't tell if he was alive or not. I didn't have the proper training besides what my dad taught me. almost a year later, you show up and free me from the occasional tests and being forced to fight for them" Growlithe finished.

Riley froze in place. "Tests?" he asked dangerously. Growlithe nodded, infuriating the boy more.

"Not very many. Nothing destructive, though it was incredibly… invasive." Growlithe responded. yellow blinked at the memory that had just surfaced. Her eyes widened.

"What did they do to you?" Riley asked, preparing to crush the skull of the next rocket he met like an eggshell. Even not being able to read Riley's thoughts and emotions, she still got the facial cue. Growlithe however, gave them something else to think about.

"Well, I can now breath green fire as well as orange and red," he lied, bringing an eyebrow raise from the humans, both for different reasons.

"Green fire, huh?" Riley asked as Yellow stayed silent.

"Growlithe actually chuckled. "No, not green… It's…" he admitted, seeming to have trouble saying it.

Yellow suddenly burst out laughing and Growlithe remembered her ability to read minds. His secret was out. "Pink! Your fire is freaking **pink**?" Yellow giggled at the fire type, who snorted indignantly.

"Not all the time, and not my fault" Growlithe defended himself, to no effect. Now he had two humans, a pichu and an eevee laughing at him, including the muffled sound of some laughter from one or two of Yellow's pokeballs.

"Heheh… Care to make a demonstration?" Riley asked, looking at the growlithe with mirth in his eyes. Growlithe felt an urge he had expected not to feel for the rest of his life: the need to joke and play around.

Riley caught Growlithe's sudden uncharacteristic smirk as the growlithe responded with "Certainly" before taking a deep breath and blasting pink fire right at Riley's face. The boy responded by absorbing the flames with his staff. The silver colored weapon began to glow a bright… ugly pink.

"That… is the worst shade of pink I have ever seen." Yellow commented "I prefer the color yellow of course."

"Of course" the rest of the group chorused.

"Whoa. This pink literally clashes with every other color I'm wearing." Riley commented, looking over his attire, which was rather mixed in terms of color and style overall. A pink so bad that it caused Riley, a pokemon raised fighter, to pay attention to the color he was wearing. Impressively ugly.

"I can't be seen with this…" Riley muttered, pointing his staff at the sky and sending the flames out into the air harmlessly. There was a lot of heat behind them.

"Those are pretty hot flames" Yellow commented "you could cause a lot of damage with those."

"Yeah, well, they're **pink**." Growlithe retorted "Even Scarlet refused the pink ribbon for the red one. Don't expect me to use it unless it's an absolute emergency."

Riley nodded. "Noted."

"Hey, Growlithe…" Yellow wondered "you and your dad get along, huh?"

Growlithe smiled again. "Yes… We played all the time, had a lot of fun. Whenever he wasn't teaching me how to be a police dog or sleeping, I was keeping him busy by having him play with me. Being a pup was great" he responded, reminiscing.

With smiles on their faces, the group made their way towards the park, which was another few blocks away.

* * *

A older teenager stood impassively in a field where kids were playing soccer and other sports, some games involving pokemon and some not. Her face was emotionless, the effect of being in the house to hear the wails of a growlithe and then of a man that had been her father. A year after his death, and she had barely recovered enough to go outside on her own.

Well, never alone. Her father's pokemon was always with her. The only one she had left to love was Arcanine, who was currently nudging her, trying to get her to cheer up for the fifteenth time that day.

"Cheer up, Cassidy, if what we heard is true, my son is coming back!" the large fire dog exclaimed, extremely excited to see his son for the first time in a year. How had he been doing? How had he escaped from team rocket? What have they done to him?

Cassidy never understood what Arcanine was talking about, but for the first time in a year he was doing something other than stoically guarding her. He was happy, brightened by the fact that he was getting his son back. Cassidy almost smiled. Almost.

Arcanine sniffed the air, detecting a slightly familiar scent mingled with some other scents. Turning his head, he found two humans walking into the field, and three pokemon. There was a pichu and an eevee with the male human, and between the humans walked… a growlithe. A very, very familiar growlithe.

A few things happened that did nothing to distract the two fire types from each other. Amber got smashed with a soccer ball and launched some eevee exclusive insults at whoever had kicked it, and Yellow tried to say something to Growlithe.

Neither event was heeded, because suddenly Growlithe was racing as fast as his legs could possibly carry him. Racing towards his family. Arcanine did not move, letting his son come to him. Growlithe tackled his father, who dwarfed the smaller fire type. Growlithe had tears of joy streaming from his eyes, a look not associated with him usually.

The reunion was certainly tearful. While the two stayed with each other, Riley finished chewing out the kid who hit Amber with a soccer ball, taking it easy on the kid, and the rest of them walked up to the heartwarming scene as Growlithe began to spew out the year he'd had away from his family.

Riley was very sympathetic towards Growlithe, and even pitied the dog. Growlithe had only been separated from his parent a year, but he had known his father, had a proper relationship with him. He had something to miss, and had believed that his father was **dead**. Riley believed that Growlithe had it worse.

"I thought you had died…" Growlithe cried, a year of growing up and becoming an adult through experience was melting away in the face of his father. That would probably return once the shock of having his father back, but for now, he was a pup again. A pup that had gotten lost and had just been found by his father.

"Eh, you can't get rid of me **that** easily." Arcanine joked, rubbing his massive paw on Growlithe's head, causing the crying pup to duck away "You got away from team rocket, then?"

Growlithe got a clever idea at that time. "Eh, you can't get rid of me **that** easily," he joked right back, earning a smile from everybody but the monolingual and mostly emotionless Cassidy. "Riley saved me from team rocket and professor Oak got the tracker out of me" Growlithe continued.

Arcanine looked up to the grinning boy, and then to the also grinning Yellow. The girl gestured to the boy, and Arcanine bowed, startling Riley. "Thank you for saving my son," Arcanine spoke, still bowed. His respect for the human strengthened, and then even more when Riley responded.

"Oh, it's fine. Those rocket grunts are pathetic. A good few smacks with my staff and the lot of them were down." Riley said, a conflicting mix of humility and pride in his sentence. Arcanine was surprised. What did the human mean? Did he fight them off himself… without pokemon?

Growlithe whispered in his ear. "Frankly, he's incredible. He doesn't make his pokemon fight, and beats everything that fights him into the ground personally. He understands pokemon, is now a part of the police force, never keeps pokemon in a pokeball… He is the most impressive human I've ever met" Growlithe told his father.

Arcanine looked up at the boy, impressed. "I guess he kept you safe, then" Arcanine stated, noting the white metal of his staff "Though he uses the same metal as the assassin…" he finished.

Riley heard this bit, looking at his staff. "This? The metal that absorbs energy and such? That kunai was made of this?" he inquired. He received a nod before Arcanine turned his attention back to his son. Something occurred to him about Growlithe's speech patterns.

"You're talking like you're all grown up…" he noted "I guess being a pawn of team rocket did this to you?" Growlithe nodded in response, and pressed himself against Arcanine, still crying. Arcanine eventually laid down to be at eye-level with his son, and they shared their father-son bonding moment.

Yellow moved to Riley. "What will you do now?" she asked. Riley looked at her, feeling somewhat dense at the moment. "What?" he asked, confused. Yellow sighed and pointed at the pair of pokemon, both of which were now crying.

"Will you let Growlithe go and live with his family?" Yellow asked quietly, getting real close and whispering real low so that neither dog pokemon could hear it. Riley was taken aback.

"Of course I will! It's his choice!" Riley hissed back. Both teens froze while noting that in their effort to be discreet and quiet their lips had almost **touched** in the process. Both backed up quick.

"Ah… ahaha. Sorry about that." Yellow apologized, blushing. Riley rubbed the back of his neck, looking very sheepish and slightly embarrassed himself. Amber noticed this immediately, and could not help but comment.

"Ohh!" Amber cried out "You two gonna to go out soon, or- **gah!** "

That last part had been a terrible mistake for Amber. Riley now had her in a crushing hug that was reserved just for things like this. "Ow! Owowowow!" Amber exclaimed "That hurts! You're crushing me!"

"What do we say when we want out?" Riley asked the struggling eevee.

"Please! Please let me go!" Amber cried out immediately, trying to escape while the others laughed. Riley was going to let her go when Yellow suddenly leaned forward.

"Not good enough" Yellow teased, wanting her own revenge against the eevee for her shenanigans. there was **no** way she was falling for Riley. He only caught her eye when he was nearby because… of his hair! That must be it. Considering every time she saw it she wanted to point and scream ' **fire**!'

"Scarlet! Help!" Amber yowled to her friend, who had been quiet thus far. To be honest, the eevee earned her current predicament, but Scarlet still jumped to Riley's arms and tried to pry them apart to absolutely no effect. "I— **gah!** —can't breath!" Amber cried out.

Yellow crossed her arms, and Amber knew that it was she that was deciding her fate this time. "Please! Please let me go! Guh…. Please?" Amber pleaded, and at Yellow's nod, Riley loosened his grip on the eevee and put her back on his shoulder, where Amber wheezed and tried to recover.

"Got… It… Call you cute bad, matchmaking worse" Amber wheezed while Scarlet did what she could to help the eevee, despite not having as much purchase because they were trying to share a shoulder.

When Scarlet slipped and fell, Riley caught her with one hand and not a glance. His smile was not missed, however. Scarlet had been sweatdropping at the antics of Amber, but she knew that the eevee would not stop. There was going to be no mercy from her or for her.

Riley put the pichu back on his other shoulder and turned his attention to the fire types, who were still reconnecting with each other much like Calia had done for Riley. This heartwarming scene was more emotional for Riley than the one he had personally experienced. Maybe because these two had actually known each other prior.

Growlithe eventually pulled away from his father, because hugs can't last forever. Checking around, he saw the others patiently waiting. Well, patient aside from Amber. Growlithe looked back from Riley to his own father, realizing that he had a choice to make.

Hearing this thought, Yellow gave Riley a nod, and the teenage boy walked up and kneeled on the ground in front of Growlithe on one knee. He smiled, reaching out and rubbing Growlithe's cheek. "It's all right. You know you can stay if you want to" Riley assured Growlithe, still rubbing Growlithe's cheek.

Growlithe blinked. Riley was going to let him go? Just like that? He could stay with his dad? Growlithe looked between the boy and his dad repeatedly, before his gaze fell on the mansion in the distance. He flinched. As the others turned to look, Arcanine sighed.

"The house scares you now, I suppose…" Arcanine murmured, sounding miserable. It had been the site of the murder of his master. It had, until recently, been the site of the murder of Growlithe's father in Growlithe's mind. Going in there would trigger painful memories of watching his father and owner killed in cold blood, even if his father was not truly dead.

Arcanine hung his head, and Growlithe felt very ashamed. He was actually considering declining because of the stupid house? Growlithe steeled his nerves. He walked up to his father, resting his side against his father.

"I will stay." Growlithe decided "I do wish to say goodbye to the others, but I **will** stay"

Arcanine started and turned his large head towards Growlithe, surprised, but eternally grateful. Rubbing the growlithe with his large face, Arcanine muttered several thank yous that made him seem older than he actually was.

Growlithe looked up at the mansion, remembering the real reason that he did not want to go back… A horrid secret that probably should be told, but did Growlithe have the courage? Maybe not.

Behind Growlithe, Yellow's eyes widened in shock before she quickly squashed the look and tried to look as though she had not heard anything. Even with a passive expression, Yellow was rooted to the spot, unable to move. That memory…

Growlithe did not want his master's reputation to die, but he knew he had to speak of it. His father deserved to know… And Riley probably did as well. Growlithe was shaking in fear at the thought of telling them, but Riley had saved his life from team rocket, probably forever, and his father had been the victim of this terrible secret.

Yellow felt Growlithe make his decision, and managed to freak out a little less. Growlithe turned to the two aforementioned people and asked them to follow him to a secluded place. While Riley was standing up to walk, Yellow found herself slightly picking up the two pokemon on Riley's shoulders and holding them. Amber squirmed a bit, but yellow shook her head.

Growlithe gave Yellow a grateful look, realizing that the human had read his mind, and led the two away to talk. Once they had reached the safety and quiet of several trees, Growlithe sat down. Arcanine followed suit, and Riley leaned against a tree.

Growlithe took a deep breath. "Listen… There is something I have been sitting on for an entire year…" he began, and hesitated. This troubled both of those listening to him. Arcanine thought of the murder and it's results that put the man responsible behind bars. Riley was thinking more of the case itself. Was something missing?

Growlithe was having trouble continuing with the story. Riley and Arcanine were both patient, and both realized that the other was patient, and was grateful. Growlithe was struggling to talk about this. Neither of the others wanted to push him. If Growlithe could not say it, then he could wait until he was able to.

Growlithe violently shook his head. " _I have to do this"_ he growled in his mind. Finally, he nodded. "That night…" Growlithe murmured, sinking into a memory. "That night was far worse than either of you know…

* * *

 **(Flashback)**

"Do you know what this is?" an arcanine asked a smaller pokemon who was looking at a book. the growlithe in question was trying to remember what the image was, before it came to him. "That's a traffic controlling stop light. It regulates traffic, and people who don't obey the motions indicated by the lights are a hazard to other drivers and must be pulled over" he recited, happy that he finally memorized that entire thing.

Arcanine smiled. "Good work, son." he complimented, prompting his kid to gleefully jump on him again like the pup he was. The pup was cheering for his victory, something that Growlithe would not have done since.

"Hey, dad?" Growlithe asked from atop his much larger father.

His father looked up and around, getting a good view of his kid. "Yeah?" he asked in return.

"How long until I go to work?" his son asked, and Arcanine cringed. Growlithe noticed.

"What's wrong, dad?" Growlithe asked, dropping down and facing his father. Arcanine nodded before continuing.

"You are still young, and have a lot to learn, Growlithe," his father admonished, "And being a police growlithe is very dangerous at times. You must be prepared in many ways for combat, ways you are not properly trained in yet. It will be a few years yet."

Growlithe took this in, tilting his head as he thought. A few years… That was worth it, most definitely. His dad would be proud, and maybe his mother would show up. She had been a wild pokemon, and had returned to the wild, but Growlithe wanted to see her someday.

"So what!? I'll be ready for it when it comes!" Growlithe exclaimed confidently. Now his father had a big smile.

"Of course you will, kid." he responded, nudging the growlithe towards a doorway. "Now get to bed, Growlithe. It's late.

"Aren't you going to bed?"

"Haha…. Nope" his father teased, poking Growlithe "I'll go to bed when I **feel** like it. Now, off to bed with you."

Growlithe grumbled and turned away, muttering about the unfairness of it all. When he turned the corner, he waited for a bit, and peeked out again with a sneaky grin… Only to find his father had snuck up to the door and was staring right down at him with an amused but stern look.

"Bed."

This time, the order was heeded as Growlithe went to go to sleep. Something kept him awake, however. For some reason, the incredibly fluffy bed of his failed to drag him into his dreams. Growlithe slowly got out of bed and began to move around again.

Growlithe's ears flicked as he heard a muttered conversation elsewhere in the house. It sounded like a two-sided conversation, but only one voice could really be heard. In fact, there **was** only one voice. Somebody was talking to themselves.

Growlithe snuck silently up through the house until he reached a room where his father was listening in to the conversation, which belonged solely to his master, Mr. Rumma. The detective was muttering to himself for a while, before stopping shortly at something. neither pokemon had been able to catch much beyond mutterings of how the white ninja had escaped time and time again.

Mr. Rumma was an international detective, always professional, always ready for anything. Arcanine had always talked about how good he was at his job, having been on a few of his master's ventures across the world.

Arcanine eventually noticed Growlithe, but said nothing. This was because Arcanine was concerned for his master, and he knew that Growlithe would be as well if he caught the mutterings. There were some sounds of movement within the room where the man was supposed to be asleep, concerning the two even more.

Eventually, those sounds stopped, and the fire types began to relax. Arcanine nodded to Growlithe. "Okay… I know you're concerned. I am too, but… Off to bed, all right? We can worry about this later all right?" he whispered.

Growlithe understood that his dad was concerned, and so decided to take him perfectly seriously. Growlithe turned and moved away a bit before looking back at his father, curiosity winning for a moment. "Will he be all right?" Growlithe whispered back.

Arcanine sighed softly. "I think so-" he began to whisper back, before…

 **SHING!**

Arcanine's roar of pain was cut off as two white weapons suddenly stabbed into crucial parts of his neck rendering him speechless, and blood flew everywhere. Growlithe was horrified. "Dad!" he cried, running forward, only to get kicked in the face by something unseen.

Growlithe snapped his teeth at the aggressor, managing to get some flesh and blood back from the intruder, before said intruder was gone with the wind. One of the weapons had been left on the ground, having been dropped, and the other one had been taken away.

A blunder. Growlithe didn't care. He raced to his father, who was now bleeding heavily from where the kunai weapons had been swiftly pulled out. "Dad!" he cried out, trying to stop the bleeding with his paws, to almost no effect at all. Growlithe had no medical training at all.

Arcanine was completely unresponsive. Growlithe was already crying, thinking his father was dead, only looking to the bleeding wounds and his father's closed eyes. Growlithe still raced to the nearest stand and slammed it with his head, breaking the table and bringing it and the previously unreachable phone down to the ground.

Growlithe at least knew what a phone was and the typical number for backup. 9-1-1. He struggled to press the buttons with his paws, but he managed after five seconds to do it properly. This was a dire emergency.

The lady answering the phone had a serious tone, but she still sounded **way** too cheerful to the panicking Growlithe, who proceeded to bark a few times at the phone. The lady stammered some things, and then there was a confirmation on the location of the call, scaring the crap out of the officers on duty.

Growlithe left the phone hanging, rushing back to his father, who was not moving at all. Growlithe decided to try and put a pad on the wounds, namely the tablecloth of the table he had just destroyed. All he could do was set it on there and keep some of the blood from flowing too freely, knowing in his heart it was far too late but doing it anyway.

Growlithe's master burst through the door, no weapon in hand at all. He was acting far too calm to Growlithe. "Help him!" Growlithe demanded, but Mr. Rumma simply moved to pick up the white kunai weapon, a pure metal weapon that reflected the light brightly, using one of those thin plastic gloves. How anybody could hide with those on their person…

Mr. Rumma looked to Growlithe. "Good work" he replied, before walking back into the room and closing and locking the door behind him. Growlithe ran to the door, knocking on it with increased strength before giving up and returning to his father.

The Arcanine showed no signs of life. No breathing, no nothing. He was gone. At least, everything pointed him towards being gone forever. Growlithe was crying on his father for quite a while before slowly getting up, covered in his father's blood and feeling destroyed. His father was dead. His master had done nothing to help.

Growlithe made a decision. He was going to have quite the talk with his master, consequences be damned. Mr. Rumma had medical experience. He could have saved Arcanine if he wanted to. Growlithe was not strong enough to open the door, so it was time for a little trickery.

Not having proper hands made things like this much more difficult, but Growlithe was determined. He knew nothing about sneaking around and doing trickery like lockpicking, but again, he was determined to get into that room.

Growlithe, still crying, rushed about, looking at drawers and different containers for something to use, expertly opening drawers and lifting lids. Keys… Those were for the cars. Growlithe still grabbed those and continued running.

Paperclip on the floor. Grabbed.

Magnet… Just in case.

Growlithe had to make the trip to drop those supplies off because of his limited carrying capacity without a bag or anything. He was soon using a quick attack to make things faster, messing up the carpet in the process. Finally, Growlithe came to a closed room that contained a bunch of random storage. The least organised part of the house.

Growlithe leaped up and found purchase with his paws on the handle. Bracing his right hind paw on the crack in the door, Growlithe turned the circular knob and the door swung open as he dropped. Growlithe darted inside. There were so many things he could use…. Growlithe chose a metal rod with a curved bend in it that had no apparent purpose, as well as one of those tools that humans use to build things… A drill, it was called.

Growlithe was barely capable of holding these things, but he made it back with relative ease. He stuck the metal rod into the crack in the door and twisting it so that the 'L' shaped bar became a level locked onto the door. The wood of the door was damaged, but this was of minimal consequence.

Growlithe then grabbed the rather powerful magnet he had randomly found and stuck it on the door, just in case that bar started to slip, and the magnet pulled the metal bar into the door on the other side. Quite a powerful magnet to do that. What it was for was also beyond Growlithe, but results are what matter.

Growlithe pushed aside the useless keys and the paper clip. Force would matter more than lockpicking, he decided. Like he could lockpick with paws anyways…

Growlithe grabbed the metal bar in his teeth, remembered that the door opened inwards, and began to push. The door began to creak, making sounds of wood protesting the force, but it was working.

" _I am strong enough."_ Growlithe assured himself as he gave another look towards his apparently deceased father, remembering the scenario gave him the strength to get to Mr. Rumma and give him a piece of his mind.

Growlithe growled darkly and pushed with a might not well known among growlithe in general. The door began to creak and complain as the lock on the door began to bend and fail at Growlithe's command. The bar was not giving, though the amount the magnet helped was unknown.

Finally, in one more push, the door was blasted open and growlithe pulled his makeshift door breaking tool away, the magnet connecting to the metal. Growlithe spat out his weapon and walked towards Mr. Rumma.

"Did you even care that my dad was **dying**!?" Growlithe roared at the human, who was sitting in a chair at a large window overlooking pewter city. The human did not answer for a moment, and Growlithe had forgotten that humans don't have a clue what pokemon talk about.

"It's you, Growlithe… I expected that mercenary of a ninja…" Mr. Rumma responded "Impressive, little one that you put together such tools and made your way in in mere minutes"

Growlithe got into the man's line of sight, looking utterly furious. Mr. Rumma seemed not to care. The man was twisting the white kunai knife in his hand, a hand which still wore a plastic see-through glove that was used for collecting evidence.

"The fingerprints on this kunai are **useless** ," the man spat "this mercenary doesn't exist. No name, no family, no home, no registered fingerprint."

Growlithe scowled and continued to listen. The man was out of his mind if he thought Growlithe was not going to drag him to Arcanine's body and tell him off, no matter how much the man understood.

"The only way to catch a man with literally no identity is to catch him in the act; something we cannot do while he is not being watched for at all corners of the world. There is only one way to get the country-... the **world** on high alert for him." the detective muttered to himself. Growlithe was not understanding what he was talking about.

Mr. Rumma looked to Growlithe, noting the small bursts of flame erupting from Growlithe's mouth as he breathed. Growlithe was **pissed**. "If we were to put this entire region after this man, he would escape. He could go to another region. I have only one path of catching this criminal for good…"

The apparently insane man put the weapon to his neck, and Growlithe freaked out, trying to stop the human only to get kicked back by a foot. "I must make this as real looking as possible…" the insane man muttered "A mercenary killing an international working police officer or detective would bring the entire world on high alert for his crimes. This way, he has no chance of escape, and cannot claim any more lives."

Growlithe started barking at the man, trying to get him to stop what he was doing as the man's plan became clear to him. "Don't do this! You have a family! You have your daughter!" Growlithe barked at the man, to no avail.

Before Growlithe could stop him, the man took the kunai knife and slashed his own throat away. There was a cry of pain before the man used the last of his time to drop the bloody kunai to the ground next to him and put his arms in a convincing position.

Dead.

Growlithe jumped to him, trying to wake him or stem the blood from his neck or **something** , but it was far too late. The insane detective had killed himself to guarantee the capture of a mercenary that had driven him mad over the years.

Growlithe understood that this insanity kept Mr. Rumma from spending time on trying to help Arcanine, but he still felt enraged at the death of his father, but now, there was also terror. His master was dead, his father was dead… There was nothing.

Growlithe ran. He ran from the room as fast as he could until he reached his father, to whom he pressed against for a few minutes before he heard sirens. Growlithe now panicked, and ran away, still crying over his loss. Growlithe found the open window that the ninja had apparently gone out of, judging by the smell. Growlithe too leaped through this window and hit the ground running as fast as possible.

Growlithe eventually came to the main city. He forced his paws to carry him all of the way to a dark alley, where he collapsed and cried himself to sleep. His dreams were all nightmares, nightmares of death and pain and losing his family.

As the fire type awoke to some sounds, he could not bother to get into a defensive position. Instead, he wearily looked up, to find some sneering humans in black clothing and a red 'R' on their shirts. Growlithe shrank away, but his strength was gone.

"Well well, what do we have here?"

"A growlithe. Personal pets of the police force. We'll take it."

The third man pulled out a pokeball. "My turn for a pokemon" he sneered, and Growlithe remembered that his father had kept him from being put in a pokeball, personally hating being inside the capsule for various reasons. Technically he was wild. he could be caught.

The last thing he saw before he was enveloped in a flash of red was the man sneering and holding the ball in front of him.

Different manufacturers of pokeballs make them differently. Some act as a stasis, keeping the pokemon asleep through the duration, a good way to avoid a pokemon disliking the ball because there was no feeling of discomfort… or comfort. There are those that are comfortable and act as a form of mindscape, and there are those that allow contact with the real world, such as not being soundproof or allowing visual connection or both.

This… This was an empty shell of a room that Growlithe had to lay in and go back to sleep. There was nothing here, and Growlithe was not in stasis. A cheaply made pokeball with no regard to the pokemon inside.

They took him then, to the base of team rocket. As a rarer and more useful pokemon, the group decided to put a tracker inside him. After this, Growlithe was subjected to a few tests and alterations, one of which gave him his pink fire and another to boost his speed marginally. Not to mention being more versatile. They turned him into a weapon of sorts, but they never properly got to use him.

By the time the changes had safely developed, as the rocket grunt who owned him had requested so to make certain that his powerhouse was not to be lost because of a malfunction in the new aspects of Growlithe's body. This meant that Growlithe had only been forced to fight twice in the next two weeks, never using his pink fire at all, and Riley knew the rest.

 **(Flashback end)**

* * *

There was silence in the forest as Growlithe finished his story, having explained how that year had gone by relatively quickly and with less pain than he could have been in. In fact, he felt very lucky that the tests done on him did not result in failure, which could have killed him or caused him immense pain or deformity…

Arcanine had been switching between being impressed with Growlithe's ability and conflicted and scared about the rest. His pup had gone through far too much…

Riley had been emotionless through this. Knowing how fortunate Growlithe was to still have a father and to still be alive himself, the boy motioned for Arcanine to go ahead and comfort the puppy pokemon. Riley had noted the resourcefulness of Growlithe and his apparent skill in getting around in a human environment with little training, but those thoughts had been obliterated by the fact that the man whose death had essentially caught the white ninja was in fact self-orchestrated.

Arcanine moved to his son and held the pup to him with a paw. "I'm sorry, son… I did not understand his predicament… I never expected that he would resort to such drastic measures. I am so sorry that you were forced through that experience with team rocket…"

Growlithe was crying again. Riley understood that he could be who he used to again around his father. Back from the void of supposed death, his father was all that should matter to him now. Professionalism aside.

Riley eventually got out a convenient pad of paper from his bag, wrote a note, and put it on the ground with a stick to weigh it down. He got up and quietly left to go back to the others. Growlithe's secret would stay secret of course. What mattered was that father and son deal with this together.

Riley pondered his own apparent change. In mere weeks, he had learned to be careful of what he said and when he said it, rather than being happy all the time. The banter was a must, of course, he could not help himself, but he would never insensitively ruin such a moment as what he had just witnessed. Maybe before he became integrated within human society he would have made some sort of amusing comment or something.

But of course, he had not really seen this before, so he had not known how he would have reacted in front of such a scenario. Apparently, he had done the right thing. Father and son reunited after they had both been believed dead by the other. It was incredible to watch. Growlithe probably felt much more emotion than Riley had when he had met his mother for the first time.

Yellow saw Riley show his face from the treeline Amber and Scarlet quickly squirmed away to get to their protector/favorite human. "Hey, you're back!" Scarlet exclaimed, clambering up Riley's clothing to get to his shoulder while Amber jumped right into his arms.  
"Where did you go?" Scarlet asked curiously, and Amber listened in. Riley gave a smile.

"It's Growlithe's secret. Don't either of you ask him, all right?" Riley responded. Amber thought about it for a moment, but Riley sounded quite sincere about it. Whatever it was, Riley's normal talkative and teasing self was hidden away at the moment.

Scarlet and Amber nodded, showing their agreement. Growlithe would get no questions from them. Riley was thankful that Amber had agreed, and had no doubt that Scarlet would agree. "Thank you." he said, scratching both pokemon behind the ears.

Cassidy had been worried about the two pokemon, but Riley assured her that they were fine. "When they come back, Growlithe will probably decide to stay with his dad and by extension, you. I get the sense you will treat him properly." Riley told the girl, who just nodded.

"You're the kid that can speak to pokemon, right?" Cassidy asked. Riley gave her his grin. "He wants to stay with his dad, for obvious reasons. I would like to talk to him on occasion though" Riley added. Cassidy blinked. This boy wanted to call back to talk to her growlithe?

Cassidy realized that this boy was good friends with her growlithe. She felt a little bit of the ice in her heart melt at the heartwarming thought. "Of course. I will give you my number, and when you call, I can give the phone to Growlithe" she offered, giving a smile.

Riley smiled in return as Cassidy took out some paper that she just happened to have somewhere and wrote a phone number down. Riley took it and took out his phone. He stared blankly at it for a bit. "Uh, Yellow? How do I do this?" he asked, confusing Cassidy greatly.

Yellow looked back from where she had been distracted talking to her pokemon, who were now out and about. She jogged over. "Phone troubles again?" she asked.

"Yeah… How do I add a phone number to my phone to call people instantly? I was told you could do that." Riley inquired, swiping the screen of his phone looking through various police based apps. Yellow did not know quite what was happening.

"What's this about?"

"Cassidy gave me her number. Trying to put it into this thing." Riley explained, utterly oblivious to Scarlet and Amber facepawing and Cassidy's hand twitching to do the same thing before she held it back. Yellow had a strange feeling… A mix of shock and something else.

"What? Why?" Yellow asked a little too quickly. Riley looked into her face and flinched. There was a freaky yellow fire in her eyes. Riley held his hands up in an 'I surrender!' position.

"Just so that I can talk to Growlithe!" Riley exclaimed, hoping not to get smashed in the face again.

Cassidy decided to save the boy, raising a finger to get Yellow's attention. Not flinching when Yellow's eyes turned on her, she began to explain. "Riley was certain that Growlithe would decide to stay with me. He wanted to talk to him on occasion" Cassidy explained, and Yellow relaxed.

"Oh!" Riley suddenly exclaimed. "I should probably give you my number too, if you can't call me when you-"

"No." Yellow decided, grabbing the boy by the shirt and starting to drag him away.

"Yellow! What if Growlithe wants to talk to me and I don't happen to call?" Riley desperately reasoned, giving Yellow pause while Cassidy contemplated the boy.

" _How dense can you get?"_ Cassidy wondered, sighing. Yellow obviously met him recently, and the boy was completely missing any cue she gave him. Must be a recent development for Yellow. Yellow released Riley, who quickly walked to pick his phone back up and had Yellow show him how to add the number, something that Yellow did not look too happy about.

And then, Yellow was asked to help him find his **own** number so that he could copy it down on paper. Riley scribbled down the number in a messy scrawl on the same piece of paper with Cassidy's number on it, and gave it back to her.

Once that was done, Growlithe and Arcanine strolled around to greet the group. They both looked immeasurably happy, which had everyone smiling. Riley managed to recover from his little scare.

" _This is pathetic"_ Riley scolded himself " _You're scared out of your mind by one angry girl when you can take on legions of men and pokemon at once with your skills."_

"Do you think you'll be fine with these guys? Cassidy has my number, if you ever wanted to talk to me." Riley informed the pup, who cheerfully said yes and gave Riley a tackle hug as an early goodbye. Arcanine laughed at the site of Riley giving Growlithe a heartwarming noogie full of pain.

"Ow. Ow. Ow…" Growlithe muttered "I get it, I get it…"

Both friends laughed heartily, promising to talk to each other once in a while, and promised to update each other and such. Growlithe still flinched when he viewed the house, but less so. He was going home after this year. he was going home.

It was nearing midday now. Yellow looked at the sun and then at her own yellow colored phone to check the time properly.

"Riley, it's about lunchtime!" Yellow called to Riley, who was distracted and got nailed by a tackle attack as the roughhousing got a bit more heated up.

"Oh, is that how you're gonna play?" Riley asked, getting in a fighting stance. Growlithe took his own stance and grinned. They were about to duke it out, as pokemon do. That is, until Yellow had them both by the hair and fur and dragged them back to Arcanine.

Eventually, Growlithe had to say his goodbyes to Riley, and Riley had to do the same for Growlithe. The both of them gave each other a smile and a nod, and Arcanine tossed his kid onto his back and ran for the manor, while Cassidy nodded at the two of them.

"Arcanine can get in on his own." Cassidy informed the others "I can get back driving my car."

"Well, why not have lunch with us first?" Riley offered, causing Cassidy to sweatdrop. Riley was being kind, but the girls… they had a different notion of his actions.

"Riley... " Yellow tried to sound cheerful, and succeeded. Cassidy was not fooled, but the dolt of a pokemon raised boy was clearly fooled. Deep down, Cassidy knew that Riley was no fool in most cases, considering he was apparently the boy that could beat pokemon in a fight with relative ease. He was just… not tech savvy or understood girls in any way, shape or form.

Cassidy decided to give the guy a chance. She turned to Yellow. "I do not mean to be a burden, of course, but if I may accept…" she began, hoping that Yellow would calm down a bit. She was clearly just starting to feel something for Riley, just a bit, and it was obviously a new feeling for her. Cassidy knew the feeling herself of course.

Yellow did, in fact, calm down, realizing she was acting completely **nutters** about the situation. Riley was being kind, that was all. He was a kind person if not brutally bashing people who mistreat pokemon. Kind of a flaw in the system. He doesn't exactly have much mercy for those people.

" _What the actual hell am I doing anyways?"_ Yellow thought " _Riley is simply somebody I am traveling with, and he's completely clueless anyways. I keep him from doing stupid crap."_

That in mind, she nodded and let Cassidy lead the way to a restaurant. Cassidy had proclaimed that it would be her treat. "No no, we can't possibly ask you to pay for us!" Yellow exclaimed, her expression positively scandalized.

Cassidy was intent on it, however. She had more money than she could ever use ever, so buying the people who saved her pokemon's life lunch is perfectly fine. "I insist. I know of an excellent place to have a nice lunch." she said, forging ahead.

While the girls argued, Riley talked aimlessly with Scarlet and Amber. "You guys doing all right?" Riley asked the pair.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Amber asked, a tilt to her head. Scarlet sighed in response to Amber. "Growlithe's gone" she reminded the eevee, sounding saddened. She had grown to respect the pup, considering how professional he was in many circumstances. His backstory sounded horrible, even though he did discover that his father was in fact alive, which was great for him.

Amber flicked her ears. "But he's home." she reminded them "he's fine. Besides, with Cassidy having his number, we can talk to Growlithe all the time."

Riley nodded. "It still doesn't make it any easier to leave a friend behind." he muttered.

Amber got a mischievous grin that really did not fit the stereotypical face of an eevee. "Maybe you want to talk to Cassidy, too!" she cheerfully said. Cassidy was unaware, but Yellow snuck a glare at the eevee, who just grinned wider.

"...Why would I? We don't know each other well." Riley reasoned, and Yellow relaxed. Nobody had noticed Yellow's shenanigans besides Amber. Yellow was panicking in her mind, struggling to recognize what was crushing her ability to be professional and headstrong.

Seven minutes later, they walked up to a very fancy place. A large building loomed before the teenagers, covered in windows and green and yellow decor. A multiple story place.

Yellow admired the decor for a moment. She had gotten distracted by Amber being herself and lost her little argument with Cassidy. A shame. She could not bring it up now without a problem. Riley of course decided to lead the way into the room, but Cassidy noticed and called to him.

"Pokemon aren't allowed in there," she said, and Riley froze and turned back to her.

"What? Why not?"

"They just don't allow it." Cassidy shrugged, and tried to walk past Riley. "Your pokemon will have to wait outside or in pokeballs"

"Not happening." Riley said flatly. Yellow nodded as Cassidy turned back in confusion. Yellow knew that Riley would not force these two to stay outside while the humans ate. Riley would find it ridiculous, discriminatory. It was of course; pokemon were sentient creatures.

Cassidy blinked. "They will not allow us in." she tried to explain.

Riley scowled and turned away. "Then we're eating somewhere **else**." he replied stiffly, and continued walking despite not knowing where he was really going. Amber stuck her tongue out at Cassidy while Scarlet just felt grateful that Riley would stick up for them like that.

" _As if he wouldn't. He's a good guy"_ Scarlet thought.

Cassidy eventually took the lead again, deciding to lead them to a restaurant that would allow pokemon that was not fast food or something. Scarlet moved to get a better view of the other end of the street, where something was clearly happening. Somebody had taken a musical instrument and was playing right there on the sidewalk.

"Do humans often do that?" she asked Yellow, who looked in that direction.

"Sometimes." Yellow responded "More often on the second Friday of each month. There tends to be a lot of people around that day that do things like this in Pewter. The event is completely unofficial, but it's an unspoken holiday for people in Pewter city."

"Sound's fun. Maybe I should check it out someday when I'm taking another round around this region." Riley commented, fully aware that his 'rounds' required constant travel. That was fine. Keeps physical strength up to walk everywhere.

Cassidy glanced at the boy. "Another round?" she asked. Riley nodded.

"I have a job with the police. Let's me search out trainers that abuse and mistreat pokemon and deal with them using legal practices… I am also allowed to take immediate action if I see it in progress or have clear proof, such as fresh wounds that do not match wounds from a pokemon battle or a threat on the human's part." Riley explained, tapping his pocket with his identification and badge absentmindedly.

Cassidy was a bit surprised. This talkative, somewhat impulsive kid was part of the police? Cassidy knew of the different aspects of the police force. Most had an age requirement for safety reasons. The ones that didn't… well, the new and massively understaffed sector was that of the Pokemon Translator. The other two in that area of work were kids as well. Yellow was one, the other was some kid in Sinnoh.

Riley obviously cared for his pokemon, and Yellow agreed with him. They would understand pokemon better than anybody. Cassidy thought this over as she now came to another, less nice restaurant. "Pokemon are allowed in here if they behave, and the restaurant does provide pokemon food" Cassidy explained, noting the eager look on the boy's face and the not-so-inconspicuous growl of his belly. He had been very hungry, even while walking away from a restaurant that would not serve pokemon.

" _So that is how much the boy cares for pokemon…"_ Cassidy understood as Riley kept himself from breaking the door down to get in and eat. Yellow did stop the boy to let Amber and Scarlet know to behave at **all** times. They could get thrown out if the pokemon started playing around and messing with things.

Amber wished she had not agreed when she had seen the architecture of this place. Intricate barriers between some of the tables that looked like stone walls of a castle, all sorts of stuff on the walls to climb on… it was the perfect jungle gym for someone as small as her. Scarlet was awed as well.

"Okay, you two… No playing around" Yellow ordered "Most of my pokemon are too big to fit around here aside from Chuchu, so we will have to arrange some food for them that they can eat elsewhere. Places that also serve pokemon like this tend to have a separate and safe spot in the building to feed them."

At this, Yellow opened the ball with her pikachu in it, who greeted Scarlet and Amber. Ratty had grown quite a bit in recent years, rather large for a raticate, and would crowd the table. Each of Yellow's pokemon constantly conversed with Riley and his pokemon friends. There was a habit on the side of both Yellow and her team alike that resulted in them often being in their pokeballs. This meant that conversation was sometimes limited.

"Hi!" Chuchu greeted them, waving a paw in the air from yellow's shoulder. Scarlet and Chuchu were similar in temperament, and they had quickly become good friends. Scarlet waved back with a smile before tightening her red ribbon again because it was getting loose. If people saw those spikes on the tip of her ear, it would draw a lot of unwanted attention.

"How's it going?" Scarlet asked, bounding from Riley's shoulder to Yellow's other shoulder to start talking to Chuchu while Amber and Riley listened to Cassidy being asked questions by the woman who seemed to work at the place.

"Hello, Miss. Table for three and food for your pokemon?" the lady asked. Cassidy nodded. Riley gestured to Amber and the other pokemon out. "These three will be staying with us, and need some food as well" Cassidy continued, catching the gesture.

"Of course. This way."

The lady led the group to an empty table meant for six, and another woman took some pads for the small pokemon to be able to reach the tabletop so that they could get some food, and gave them to Riley. Yellow subsequently handed her other pokeballs to the first woman, who walked away with them.

At Riley's worried glance, Yellow explained. "If there is a problem, I can catch the thoughts of my pokemon." Yellow told him "and they are most likely in good hands. This is still a pretty nice place. I actually have had no trouble with restaurants like this that I can remember."

Riley felt only slightly reassured, but that was fine. He could handle a little stress. The problem came when he had to decide what to get.

"You can't just ask for everything. You literally can't eat all that." Amber said as Riley muttered aloud at his menu.

"And how do you know that?" Riley asked with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression.

"'cause you're not a freaking black hole. There are enough different dishes to fill this table ten times." Amber replied, poking at different available food as a man in a suit came along with some breadsticks, and asked if the humans wanted some soup or salad.

While Yellow helpfully turned Riley's menu to the page with the different never ending soups or salads, Riley was frowning suddenly at Amber. "How the heck do you know what a black hole is?" he asked in confusion.

Amber smirked while the man who brought the breadsticks stared at the boy talking to his pokemon. "How do **you** know what it is?" Amber retorted, sniffing at the bread that was quite near her. Riley had learned it from Metagross of course. Amber knew that he had had a proper teacher.

Yellow nudged Riley from where she was sitting next to him. Riley quickly looked at the menu. "Uh… What would you suggest that I get that is rather healthy?" Riley asked, his physical capabilities under consideration. He did not need to wind up getting thick around the waist.

The waiter snapped to attention as Riley the human girls casually drank some water. "Oh, I personally prefer-" he started giving Riley a rundown of the soups he could recommend and popular soups that many customers buy. Amber heard no more because she tuned out.

While Amber snuck a delicious breadstick away from the basket, Yellow was pretending not to notice Amber's thoughts and was conversing with Cassidy about how she was doing and how she will handle things from here on out.

Amber succeeded in getting the breadstick away from the others and ate it while Cassidy dropped a bit of a bombshell. "I often get jumped by reporters. If they were to ask how I got Growlithe back, I would ask Riley if I could mention him. I feel that I would need his permission to answer such a question."

Riley looked up. "Reporters?" he asked, unsure of the term. Metagross had taught him some basic science and some math, but nothing about human stuff. He supposed that such a thing would have been a good idea to learn. At least Yellow was teaching him.

"They write stories and record things for television. If Cassidy tells them, you will become more widely known around the region for something like this. While this can lead to you being more likely to be helped by passerby if they recognize you, it also makes it easier for your enemies to find you." Yellow explained.

Cassidy flinched at the last part Yellow had mentioned. She had not considered that Riley might be in danger. There was no reason to think so, after all. Riley was not unnerved. "Would something like that make my understanding of pokemon spread to others? Would abuse rates drop?" he mused.

"Maybe, but it's not a given." Yellow replied.

Riley's stomach growled, pausing the conversation as the pokemon laughed at him. Finally, Riley decided to finish his thought after a quick retort at his eevee friend. He looked towards Cassidy. "If these reporters ask about it, you can tell them about it." Riley decided.

Cassidy nodded. It had been more of a serious issue than she had initially anticipated, believing that this Riley was in no danger whatsoever, but it had still gone by without much of a problem. It made things easier for her and hopefully a bit easier for Riley.

Food arrived eventually, and by that time, Riley had discovered how his soup taste while Cassidy had her salad; Yellow had elected not to have either soup or salad. Furthermore, while Riley kept stuffing his face with breadsticks while Amber sneaked a few despite knowing they were probably bad for her to eat.

Pokemon food in bowls was placed in front of the three pokemon, while plates filled with different foods covered the table in front of the humans. Cassidy had chosen a meal with chicken and different vegetables on her plate. Yellow had gotten herself a smaller meal consisting of salad and beef, giving meaning to not getting a soup or salad before. Riley had gotten a really big hamburger with just about anything available on it, considering he had never actually gotten to have a hamburger before.

Needless to say, he enjoyed it quite a bit though he decided that he would have to get some exercise today or tomorrow… or both. Probably both.

The pokemon enjoyed their food very much of course; that food is designed for each pokemon, so it would definitely be enjoyable to them. Riley of course finished his food first, having destroyed that larger than average burger in about five minutes. He quickly downed his water and began to talk to Amber, who had also finished quickly.

Lunch quickly devolved into mindless chatter aside from Cassidy, who was the last to finish her meal and did so as professionally and neatly as possible. When the check came, both Yellow and Cassidy offered to pay the bill.

Suddenly, Riley was caught in an intense argument that just left the two girls staring into each other's eyes, metaphorical electricity seeming to spark between their eyes. Riley gathered Amber and Scarlet and got out of the booth slowly, backing up. The waiter looked at him sympathetically before paying close attention to the argument to see who would be paying the bill.

Eventually, Yellow realized that her reserves of money were not actually on her at the moment. She jolted to a stop, and Cassidy seemed to guess at her problem. "I will be paying." she stated and handed the man the money required plus a generous tip without a second thought.

Amber and Scarlet were quite full, being small pokemon, but the effect was far, far different. Amber, under the effects of something in the breadsticks, was practically vibrating on the spot. Scarlet had fallen asleep instead.

Riley secured Scarlet while Yellow returned Chuchu and received her other pokemon from the lady at the desk. Then, They were forced to contain an incredibly hyperactive eevee.

Amber was not having it, literally bouncing off of the walls and bounding across things. Yellow was forced to stun the eevee with an excellently aimed thunder wave from the newly sent out Chuchu. Riley caught her, apologized to everyone quickly, and got himself out of there.

When they all escaped, Riley frowned at the eevee who was completely limp but still conscious. "Calm down, Amber. What is up with you?" he asked. Yellow inspected the eevee's thoughts.

"She got a few breadsticks…" Yellow sighed, remembering that this restaurant had amazing tasting breadsticks for a reason. Amber shivered in Riley's arms, fighting the paralysis with surprising effect.

"Let's get her out of Pewter. Are we ready to get out of this town?" Riley asked. Yellow shook her head.

"No, we need to restock on food and find a place for the night." Yellow reasoned, receiving a nod from Riley, who more was willing to stay on the increasingly unpredictable girl than he was understanding the actual situation, though he did get the bit about resting. How much stuff did they have on them already in the packs they tended to carry if they were not in some storage in the police center or the pokemon center? A **lot**. A **ton**. Probably far more than they needed.

"And Amber's going to sleep like **this**?" Riley asked, squeezing the eevee tighter as she started squirming.

"Oh no. She'll be like that for about two days. We can let her run around a bit once we are about a mile out of Pewter.

"An entire **mile**?"

"Pokemon under the influence of those breadsticks seem to be astonishingly fast, incredibly strong, and particularly volatile." Yellow explained "There's no real explanation for it, but some ingredient in the typical breadstick in a restaurant that most of them share sends them into a hyperdrive."

Riley looked at the squirming eevee. "She doesn't seem too strong." he commented, "And I wonder what it feels like. Sometimes I forget I'm not a pokemon myself."

Suddenly, Amber put a paw on Riley's arm and began to push in her thrashing. Riley's eyes widened in shock as he was being pushed away. "Chuchu!" Yellow called, and Amber was hit with another thunder wave. Riley got hit a bit as well, his arms taking the attack and hanging limp.

Keeping his staff in hand somehow, Riley was no longer underestimating the eevee. "She's dangerous. We need to properly restrain her." he proclaimed.

Scarlet and Chuchu both knew thunder wave, so as long as somebody kept an eye on Amber everything would be fine. Hopefully. Riley touched his arms with his staff, and latent electricity moved from his arms and into the staff ending his own paralysis problem.

Cassidy chose that time to say her farewells towards the two other teenagers while Riley gathered Amber up again, hoping nothing would go wrong. It was an almost somber farewell. Cassidy was used to people saying goodbye in this manner towards her. Ever since her father had been murdered, people tended to be like that around her, and she tended to be like that to others.

Cassidy walked away, vowing to pay attention to Growlithe and Arcanine when she got home. Grieving kept her from giving them the time they needed. She was their owner after all. She needed to be their friend as well.

She still had to decide whether to follow her father's footsteps and become an international detective.

Yellow gestured for Riley to follow her and the two began to head to the pokemon center. Today and tomorrow would be difficult days indeed. They needed to be prepared for quite literally everything.

Anything could happen. Anything.

* * *

 **Yay! Father and son reunited! Even if there was some bloody backstory to the whole thing... I love writing happy endings. Well, not really an ending. New Age continues on.**

 **Please review if you have something to say. I so enjoy reading reviews.**

 **Other than that, there's not much to say. Other than, of course, that it looks like trouble ahead that may have to do with Amber in some manner. Prepare for destruction; A breadstick feuled Amber is on the loose! And the breadstick thing was a bit random, but Amber had to eat something she shouldn't have done, and humans aren't going to stop putting a freaky chemical in something if it makes stuff taste good.**

 **Good day, everyone.**

 **-Hyperjade**


	9. Chapter Nine: Frenzy

**Hey, guys. This'll be a shorter chapter than more reecent ones. I wanted to avoid splitting Mt. Moon between two chapters, and this chapter had taken me plenty of time. Apologies, but this might be a recurring trend with Calculus and Physics. At any rate, let's respond to reviews.**

 **Jango: That was quite the noise, arilneko90.**

 **Amber: Yeah. Riley and Yellow...**

 **Jango: And is that a... double smile? You have two mouths? or is it a double chin?**

 **Amber: Jango!**

 **Jango: What?**

 **Me: Shut up Jango. Anyhow, glad I was able to convey all of those emotions at once, Raven. I am glad you liked it. Yes, the pink fire was random. I realized that based on how team rocket worked in my story, having them NOT doing anything to Growlithe would have made little sense. Thus, Growlithe got demeaning pink fire that looks absolutely ugly (like the speed scarf in TAC).**

 **Amber: Phillip Harbindinger is praising you for imputing a detail you forgot into the next chapter rather than in the A/N.**

 **Me: Is he now?**

 **Amber: Yep. He's also calling himself ADHD. Well, hope he enjoys this chapter.**

 **Jango: That's it for reviews.**

 **Me: Chapter start!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine: Frenzy**

 **BOOM!**

"Gah!"

Riley's exclamation brought the attention of Yellow, and more importantly right now, Scarlet. Amber was up and about **again**. Each paralysis was working less and less, and now the wall was damaged. So was another one.

Amber was getting **faster**.

"How long did you say this would last!?" Riley exclaimed, struggling to contain the much stronger and more volatile eevee that was giving even Riley trouble containing her, though he had become practiced at catching her at this point… At least in the small and enclosed room.

"About a day now!" Yellow called back. Both humans were utterly exhausted. Yellow had discovered how much the eevee had eaten of the breadsticks and had decided that the eevee's time as a ballistic missile that was barely conscious would last a day and a half instead.

Yellow was hurriedly packing their stuff, not caring who had more stuff to carry any longer. They had to get **out** of this city before the damage caused would rack up more money than either of them could afford.

"Out! Out!" Yellow shouted as she and Riley carried the struggling eevee out the door and straight out of the center. They had to move, move, **move**!

They were out of the city in record time for Yellow. Scarlet was having trouble hanging on, so she got rather close to the thrashing eevee. Not a safe place to be standing, but it was better than being left behind in the panicked state that the others were in. Riley wouldn't dare leave her, but Amber might escape.

It turns out that running for a mile is not so difficult when you really, **really** need to. Yellow and Riley skidded to a stop together once they had gone far enough. "Okay!" The uncharacteristically panicky teenage girl exclaimed "Let her loose!"

Amber erupted from Riley's arms like a cannonball. A bouncy and hyper one. Riley checked to make sure he had his staff and everything. His things were in order, surprisingly enough. Amber was gone.

Riley cursed. "How are we going to find her?" he growled in annoyance and a little pain. His chest would be shredded if he had not been wearing his silver clothing underneath his normal clothing. His normal clothing, however, had a large clawed out hole in it. Very messy looking, and it exposed his cloth-like armor.

"If we see her go forward, we go forward. She'll stick around us, most likely" Yellow began slowly looking about for the eevee, "If not, we don't move a muscle, and she'll show up again. We know she can't be caught, and has no tracker. We just do it this way for the rest of the day, but we have to stay awake. You ready for an all nighter?"

Riley looked her in the eye. "Not really."

"What?" Yellow asked in surprise, looking over to see the boy shrug. "The ever indestructible poke-boy can't handle a little all nighter?" she teased.

"I need my beauty sleep. Keeps my focus up." Riley replied casually, brushing off the teasing until he realized that Yellow already had bags under her eyes. "You don't look so awake" he commented.

Yellow blinked. "Was it that obvious?"

"Yeah."

Yellow blushed slightly, which was obvious enough on her fair skin. Riley had been paying quite close attention to her, then. Riley, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the result of his words, but he was not thinking in any such way. He was trying to help. Yellow's blush went unnoticed.

There was a crashing sound behind them. Riley began to move, but Yellow stopped him. "No, no going backwards. No moving unless we see Amber move in a certain direction." she ordered, forcefully removing her thoughts about the situation.

They warily watched both sides of the road, into the treeline. There was occasionally a crash around them. What kind of damage could she be doing? The teenagers still looked about, paranoid and worried. Their little eevee was getting herself in trouble and was strong enough to keep doing so.

"There!" Yellow darted forward, Riley following suit. They ran as fast as Yellow could, Riley unwilling to leave her behind. They came over the hill to see Amber sitting next to a tree. A fallen tree. Amber was near it's base, tail swishing happily. The crash they had heard… the dust was still settling.

"Did Amber just…" Riley stammered, caught unawares about the enhanced powers that the pokemon under the effect of the breadstick frenzy.

"Yep." Yellow replied between breaths.

"She just…" Riley repeated, flabbergasted. "She just knocked over a **tree**!?"

Amber bolted, thankfully ahead of the group. Riley noticed that Yellow was already tired, and promptly grabbed her and ran. Yellow yelped in surprise at the action, realizing that he had her bridal style, and began blushing. So much for putting it off of her mind.

" _He's just helping."_ she reminded herself.

This did not fully stop the heat she felt in her cheeks. She cursed her freaky reactions to the boy that made no sense. What the heck was even going on between them? That was a question for when they weren't chasing after a zubat out of hell eevee.

"Gravvy! Get that tree out of here and follow us!" Yellow yelped, tossing her pokeball that unleashed the golem right next to the tree before the ball automatically flew back to her hand. The rock type nodded and used his impressive strength, along with the move strength, to pick up the rather large tree and chuck it back into the woods.

"I can't see her anymore! Stop!" Yellow shouted, and Riley skidded to a halt immediately, letting Yellow down to her feet. Yellow was almost disappointed to not be carried anymore. That was ridiculous. She was quite capable of carrying her own weight.

"Right…" Riley muttered to himself, absently tapping his staff on the ground "Amber is in trouble, and we can't do anything about it…"

"If we do our job right, she will be near us when it begins to wear off." Yellow assured the boy. Said boy was currently panicking because he thought he was about to fail his first real life bodyguard mission

and lose a good friend in the process.

Riley was not to be deterred in his worries just yet. "She could be in danger of being caught by rockets…" he fretted. Yellow marveled at how he was so worried for somebody else; a person who was currently quite strong and fast and capture would be a pointless venture.

"If we can't catch her for more than a few minutes, nobody can." Yellow tried to assure him again. This time, Riley's tense shoulders did sink a little bit.

"Probably…" he admitted "But I don't like taking chances. At all."

Yellow put a hand on his shoulder, startling the boy. "We don't have a choice, Riley." she reminded him "And we'll get her back. You can have at any rocket member you find along the way."

Riley smiled a bit. "Interestingly enough, that makes me feel loads better," he replied.

Yellow smiled in return. "I thought it would."

As the boy retained his vigilance, Yellow tried to remember what was ahead. "Okay… There is a split in the road that we need to stop at. One path leads to a pokeball factory, and the other leads to mt. moon." she recalled.

Riley looked over to Yellow. "A pokeball factory?" he asked

"Factories make things in bulk. There are probably thousands of pokeballs in their different types in that building, in boxes, on assembly lines. There will be workers. If Amber gets in there…" Yellow shuddered "There will be absolute chaos."

"It'll turn into a massive pileup of pokeballs?" Riley asked.

"It'll turn into the world's largest ball pit."

"Huh?"

Clueless red haired boy aside, Yellow thought that everything should go well if Amber just avoided the pokeball factory.

Which meant that an hour later when they made their slow and painful progress towards the crossroads, Amber turned left **immediately**.

Yellow cursed to herself. Of **course**. Was it really going to happen any other way? "Welp. We're going to the arceus-damned pokeball factory." she muttered, and hurried left after the eevee. Thankfully, Gravvy had caught up to her by this point. Yellow facepalmed as she ran, and let Dody out of her pokeball.

"I thought I was going to have to say something." Dody muttered as she let Yellow quickly mount her and continue running. Riley, glad for the change of pace, sprinted along as well.

"Sorry about that." Yellow apologized to her dodrio "I was a bit freaked out about the situation."

"Yellow, panicking is unlike you." Dody mused.

Yellow sighed. "I know… It's been stressful lately. I don't know-"

Dody turned one of her heads to look Yellow in the eye. "You don't know? It's pretty clear that you are being distracted by Riley. Very distracted."

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Yellow whispered back, a slight blush on her cheeks. "W-we're just travelling together."

"Stammering's not like you either." Dody noted. Yellow flinched at that. Dody was right. She was utterly distracted. The girl frowned a bit and looked away. Riley was distracting her, whether he was trying to or not. Well, that wasn't quite the correct thing to say. Yellow was at fault here. Riley was completely oblivious to Yellow's predicament, but Yellow was certain; she should be able to ignore whatever was causing her to be… distracted.

"Let's focus on Amber." she decided, and Dody nodded the head that was looking at Yellow. Having three heads was quite a useful thing. Dody could keep watch, eat, and sleep at the same time. Her eyesight was good as well, which was what allowed Dody to know that the eevee was **still** running about.

They stopped several more times over the next twelve miles until they saw the spires of the pokeball factory. "Yellow?" Riley asked, dropping out of the trees right next to her as the blonde yelped and leaped two feet in the air.

"Don't do that to me!" Yellow exclaimed, smoothing her hair down again. She had almost cleaned the boy's clock. "I almost flattened you!"

Riley looked away. "You'll have to try a lot harder than that…" he muttered. He was watching for the eevee again. Dody and Yellow followed suit, as Yellow thought that Riley was forgetting what happened when he woke up after almost getting himself killed.

However, she decided to bug him about it later. Why she was feeling like that was also odd to her. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he could actually take a punch. Maybe Yellow was going mad. The former seemed more likely.

Big red doors marked the entrance to the pokeball factory. Obviously enough, the door had a sideways pokeball image with a brighter red and a white. The ball's black colored seal lined the door so that the ball would separate as the door opened.

The rest of the building was rather a grey color. It was somewhat simple, which basically dulled the effect of their fancy door.

Yellow and Riley ran forward and slammed their backs into the door. It moved apart despite their attempt to hold it together, in the attempt to keep the eevee from going in. It struggled against Riley, but Yellow was pushed away. Even with Gravvy helping, it slowly pushed itself apart.

"What the heck are you kids doing?" a large burly man grumbled, walking out of the widening doors and forcing the children away. Dody looked away to see a telltale flash of brown in the trees away from the building, across the parking lot.

"Yellow, she's coming." the three headed bird warned her trainer, who flinched.

"Sir, please. You have to lock the door right away. There's this eevee going mad and it's headed this way!" Yellow exclaimed, trying to explain herself to the man.

The main blinked before chuckling. "An eevee? We can handle a rogue eevee, missy." he replied. The two teens looked at him, startling the guard with the panic in their eyes.

"No." Yellow said

"You can't" Riley finished "Amber snuck some food from us in a restaurant, and…"

Now the guard paled. he knew all about what happened when the mix of ingredients in one of those breadsticks made it's way into the system of a pokemon. Now he knew why these two were so frightened.

"Does it have a pokeball?" he asked, hoping beyond hope that the two kids had come prepared for this.

"Not one that we could hope to get." Yellow told the man, who whipped out a radio from his pocket.

"Lock down the building. Immediately."

Alarms blared as the other end of the radio beheld a now panicking guard, who was panicking because the other guard was panicking, and being his brother, he knew that the door guard was **not** the type to panic.

The doors slammed closed after a moment with the three humans outside of it plus one pichu. "We will keep an eye on the eevee. If we are gone for more than five hours, open the door. If we are nearby, do not open that door until next morning. I trust everyone inside knows what is going on?" Yellow inquired.

The guard nodded. "Total lockdown is only initiated in this factory for the most dangerous of situations. Large groups, and I mean terrorists, or pokemon under the effect of those horrid breadsticks."

Riley shook his head. "You people are nuts. Why is it even **legal** to make food that does that to pokemon? I don't even know if Amber is properly in control. What if she's scared?"

Riley's concern brought concern for Amber in Yellow. Yellow had not personally met a pokemon who had been under it's effects. Most events occur in southern Kanto. Pewter only had a few really disastrous events. Two of them, actually. Before Yellow became involved in the police force.

Amber showed up after five minutes. She sat in front of the three humans and Scarlet, tail swishing about at incredible speeds. Her eyes were big and adorable, her posture straight. She was shivering with energy. How much chaos she could have caused.

Amber viewed the group, head tilted slightly. What was the thing behind them? What was in it? Was that a pokeball on the door? Who was the third bloke? Why did Riley and Yellow have apprehensive looks on their faces? Was there food somewhere? Where had the tree she had knocked over gone?

As Amber's mind went at a thousand miles per hour, Riley crept towards Amber. "Hey, Amber. You recognize me, right?" he asked slowly. Amber's ears flicked rapidly. She never blinked. Riley. Riley was in front of her. Riley was getting close to her. Riley was-

Amber stopped thinking about him and shot off to look at the door. She was there in seconds. She sat in front of it, tail still swishing as she looked sideways to see the pokeball properly. " _Ooh! That's a pokeball! A big pokeball! I wonder i it catches pokemon still. I bet I could fit in this one easily!"_ Amber's rapid thoughts were somewhat guessable.

Amber jumped and slammed her skull into the pokeball, and to the horror of the three humans that were outside and to the horror of the person listening at the other side of the door, her headbutt **dented** the door.

"That's insane." Riley frowned "There is no way that she could be that strong."

They began to panic when she did it again. **Clang**. The door dented further. "Damn it!" Riley cursed, running forward and grabbing the eevee before she could attack again with her new monstrous strength. Unfortunately, as said, she had monstrous strength. Riley got himself a good beating that even he couldn't handle, and would probably have bruises all over his face and chest afterwards.

Amber hit the door again after she jumped away from Riley. the reinforced door actually **broke** , allowing the hyper eevee into the building.

Three humans stared after her, unable to get through because the hole was too small. "Well…" Yellow murmured, and the guard grunted.

" **Shit**." Riley finished.

* * *

When the doors were finally opened in panic and hope of reinforcements, the place was an absolute mess.

People were screaming and running. Conveyer belts were destroyed and spilling pokeballs of all types along the ground. Boxes of pokeballs were destroyed and spilling onto the floor while Amber shot around like an incredibly bouncy cannonball. It only took a moment to understand why.

Amber had gotten ahold of a moon ball, a ball used to catch certain pokemon well, and they and many of the things they touched were less affected by gravity. A side effect of the technological feat used to built it. Moon balls were particularly rare because of their cost to make and buy.

Amber bounced around, destroying anything and everything in her path. The ground was covered in ankle deep amount of pokeballs of all different types. Horror filled the eyes of everyone surrounding the room as they hid and cowered.

Amber took a little break, still shivering with energy and still wide eyed, landing on Riley's head and laying there as if sleeping.

Things stilled. Riley stopped cold. "Don't… Move…" Yellow whispered "Don't move a freaking muscle."

Riley obeyed, being as quiet as possible even with the amount of pokeballs on the floor increasing slowly. They were at knee height now in this room. There were so many pokeballs. So many…

Amber was pretending to be asleep. her mind was racing, but she was waiting, waiting for Riley to try and grab her again. beating him up was fun! And his hair was comfortable and his hair was orange like fire and he wasn't moving!

Needless to say, Amber's mind was not in a good way at the moment. Gone into a drunken hyperdrive, the eevee was about as volatile as lightning. Vibrating with energy, she was bound to get bored eventually.

Yellow was apologizing to the manager in the building about the chaos. The damage was not extensive, but it would be expensive. "I can cover the costs sir." she told him "I am willing to take full responsibility."

"Don't be ridiculous." Riley told the girl immediately.

"You don't have the money to fix this. I do. Stay still and shut up." Yellow retorted immediately "And I will also cover any future damage if we can't get Amber out of here without more damage being caused."

Her promise pacified the fire spitting manager somewhat, which led to Yellow turning back to Riley. "Okay, Riley, try to slowly walk towards the door. Very slowly." she ordered.

Riley found it difficult. He was in a mess of pokeballs at this time. Every twitch brought about a clatter that had him wincing. Having an eevee on his head was not a problem. Having a volatile, hyperactive, supercharged eevee with monstrous strength and speed at this current time now, **that** was a problem.

Wading through the pokeball pit was slow and stressful going, but Riley neared the door eventually. The eevee was still pretending to sleep. Yellow kept a hand on the boy, making him walk a certain pace consistently.

Amber still waited for the boy to try and grab her so that she could pummel his face into the ground.

Finally, they were out of the building and they closed the doors quickly. They saw us off while the began to clean up the mess around there. It had been two hours since they entered the place. Yellow still regulated Riley's pace.

Riley personally felt like he himself was on a leash. If he did anything he wasn't supposed to, he suffered the consequences. Yellow didn't let him do anything at all for two hours, around which time they needed some food. Breakfast had been quite... conservative.

Finally, Yellow gave a mutter. "Okay, try to get her off your head."

"...Yeah. Scarlet, could you paralyze her?"

"I-I can try" came the mildly frightened reply. Scarlet reached a paw to Amber's shoulder and sent as powerful of a thunderwave as she dared into the body of Amber, hopefully paralyzing her. The eevee, getting what she wanted, tried to leap up and jump Riley, only to realize that her muscles weren't working at all again.

She struggled, her mind going into overdrive as Riley pulled her off his head and promptly stuffed her in a non-airtight bag made of leather that Yellow had produced from somewhere. Then Yellow had given Riley another one, and then a third. "Why on earth have you got three super strong leather bags?" Riley asked after Amber had been thoroughly trapped by the strong material.

"Well… I've had to grab small pokemon before when in a rush, and they usually fight. Last time, I saved a rattata that way and it just ate it's way out of the bag. So I got these." she explained.

"And… You didn't think to use these bags when Amber first started going nuts?"

Yellow froze, and then blushed. "...Oh."

"Oh." Riley repeated.

"Yeah…" Yellow muttered, embarrassed "Oh."

Amber slowly recovered from paralysis much slower than normal. The weird affect on her body seemed to randomize her ability to recover. She was sick. Her mind racing and such. however, there was enough coherent thought for figuring out a few things.

While Amber began struggling to plan out her escape so she could run some more, the teenagers talked as they ate. "How much stuff is inside of that pack of yours? I swear you have more things than your bag can actually hold." Riley told her.

Yellow shrugged. "I'm very good at packing things. There are some really expensive bags that can actually hold far more than they appear physically capable of, and of course there are those item balls that we use for our most important items. I have several holding tools for police work if I need it, weapons to defend myself in case my pokemon are unavailable for some reason, and the key items for… well… anything."

Riley's eyebrow rose. "Weapons? As in a sword or a spear or a staff?" he asked.

Yellow shook her head. "No, I mean a pistol and a submachine gun in case I really, really need it. I have trained at aiming and using the weapons, so…" she shrugged. Riley blinked. This girl in front of him had the capability to pull one of those gun things out of her bag and take things apart with it.

"I understood the gun part of 'pistol and submachine gun'" Riley told the girl.

"A pistol is a more precise gun you can use with one hand easily, and the submachine gun is more along the lines of spray and pray. Basically, point and shoot." Yellow informed him.

"Got it." Riley responded, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

Somehow remaining casual despite knowing that the female of the two could riddle somebody with bullet holes anytime she wanted to, they turned their attention to the bag with the struggling eevee in it. "We should try and feed her…" Riley murmured.

"Not safe." Yellow argued "She can go hungry until that wears off. She is quite an odd eevee, so it might happen sooner. For now, it is way too dangerous to even try."

Riley said nothing for a time as he watched Amber struggle. Finally, he sighed. "You're right, as always. I hate it, but you're right. She can go hungry for a day. Besides, she ate some of my hair while we were walking out of there.

Yellow started. "Did she?" she asked, peering closer to Riley's hair. Some of the hairs in front looked clipped. She started to giggle. "Yeah, she did! And you didn't say anything?"

"Any motion or sound might have triggered her." Riley explained. Yellow considered his reasoning. He was correct of course. For some reason, Yellow kept underestimating the boy. Perhaps it was due to his lack of any sort of human education.

As Yellow nodded, Riley packed up the materials they used for lunch after cleaning them to the best of his ability with the water jug that they had. It was quite large, so they needed an item ball for it. Riley had elected to carry that one.

Stuffing the blue ball with the white 'I' on it into his pack again, he also put away his equipment. Yellow did all of the cooking, but he did the heavy lifting. Yellow had no intent on repeating what had happened in Delia's house, and Riley had agreed wholeheartedly.

Riley hefted the little bag over his shoulder and the two departed at a normal pace once more, confident that things would go better for a while. These bags were (according to Yellow) really, really strong.

But to the pokemon who had the energy in her body to topple trees, Amber had other plans. She was only able to form a coherent thought once every few minutes, but she slowly, very slowly, came up with a plan to get out of there in her state.

" _Let's see…"_

" _..."_

" _I could chew my way out."_

" _..."_

" _Nope. Been chewing for five. no luck."_

" _..."_

" _Wait, didn't I do something to Riley that time?"_

" _..."_

" _He was all hurt and had weird hairs on him after my dream…"_

" _..."_

" _my dream was really weird and my necklace shone"_

" _..."_

" _...could I do that again?"_

The eevee tried to focus, but it was difficult. She would go mental every few seconds, and thrash about a bit, before gaining some (yet still hyperactive) sense of thought. There was energy in her body, like the kind that had been described as evolution, but she wasn't evolving. Why was that?

She focused on that energy, pulling it forth. Then, once she had that energy, she thought she had a choice. Blue, red, or yellow. Just as she was about to make her choice, she lost it all and went mindless for a bit.

Amber finally chose her energy, deciding to go with bright and yellow, and felt energy fill her body as she lost it again. She grew, and unleashed some energy in her mindless state.

Riley felt it, all right. The bag was not broken, but electricity soared through it, giving Riley a proper electrocution as he roared in pain and quickly applied his staff to the bag, letting **it** take that pain instead. As he breathed heavily, Yellow looked on in shock. "Amber know's an electric move?" she asked, before rushing to help Riley back up.

Amber, however, had felt her energy fade away quickly, leaving her exhausted as she shrank again. She pushed against the bag, to no avail. Her power built back up into her quickly, though not incredibly so. It would be another hour before she could try again.

Riley and Yellow walked on, refusing to open and check the bag for surprise jolteons, but Riley had felt the bag by pressing his hand against it in multiple places, and he confirmed the presence of an eevee in the bag. Utterly confused, the two dropped it and continued on.

"We will be at the mountain in a few days." Yellow told Riley eventually "after the mountain, getting to cerulean would take another day."

"And how long does it take to go over the mountain?"

"Oh, we're not going over." Yellow replied, pointing to the looming mountain in the distance "That thing is **covered** in snow. We're going through it."

Riley blinked and looked at her. "Through the mountain?" he asked, confused. They could go straight through it? They didn't have any pokemon who could dig, and definitely not dig that far.

"Oh, there's a tunnel." Yellow explained, looking as if she was thinking about something. In fact, she was thinking. Thinking about the fact that there were an impossible amount of zubat in those caves. Zubat are one of the more instinctual pokemon. While they are capable of thought, the only thing they don't attack on sight are the cleffa, clefairy, and clefable for some reason.

"It is long, and it should take us a day and a half to get through. Lately it is used quite a lot, so money went into making it a proper path with torches and everything along the sides. It's properly maintained. You know, there was a pokecenter right outside on this side of the mountain, and now it's spanned into more of a small town. Kane town, after Walter Kane, who donated most of the money needed for its construction."

"Huh." Riley looked on ahead as if expecting to see buildings arise out of nowhere. "Wait, the bloke named a town after himself?" he asked. Feeling self important, was he?

Yellow laughed. "No, not at all. He actually protested against the name, but the people who actually worked on it and the mountain to make travel safer had other plans. They were more than happy to call it Kane town after the new improvements made homes, jobs, and a dangerous path much, much safer for travelers in one fell swoop."

Riley nodded. "Well, I get the first and last parts, and I suppose you humans use your 'jobs' to make money, right?"

Yellow nodded. "Right. There's this whole economic thing that I need to run you through before I leave."

"…leave?"

"I have my own job to get to." Yellow nodded, looking serious "After you leave cerulean, I will have to go back to my job. I will check up on you regularly of course."

Riley was silent for a moment. Yellow was leaving him? That felt… weird. Yellow was the one who was basically supporting him. She knew what to do, and now there was a deadline? Riley felt odd about it. What could he possibly say in the face of that?

"I… What would I be able to do without you?" Riley asked, causing Yellow to feel strangely elated. "I mean, I have no idea how to handle your complicated human world." he continued.

"I know, I don't really want to leave you hanging, but duty calls eventually." Yellow told the boy sadly "I do intend for us to stop in Cerulean for several days, and I can use those days to teach you the basics, and we can stay in touch. We have each other's cell numbers."

Then Yellow smiled. "If you even remember how to use your phone." she giggled.

"Oi!" Riley protested towards the laughing girl. " _Curses. I don't have a good retort."_ Riley thought to himself as he fumed. Yet, he still wasn't really that angry. More of the 'hide oneself metaphorically in the corner and weep' kind of thing, as his pride had been wounded.

While he struggled to find a response, Yellow finished her little laughing fit and decided to continue walking. Riley quickly picked up the pace to follow her. They walked… and walked… surrounded not by forest but by cliffs with trees up top now, like a ravine.

"We used up a lot of daylight." Yellow commented eventually as they travelled. Riley squinted up at the sun. "No kidding." he grumbled.

The back of his shirt suddenly felt hot. The bag… it was freaking hot! "OW!" Riley exclaimed, again absorbing some fire energy from the bag before the bag could disintegrate, thankfully being able to remove the energy when the energy was close to the thinner surface. Riley quickly dispelled the flames and checked on the bag.

Once again, after feeling the thrashing bag, Riley informed the group that it was indeed an eevee inside of the bag. "What the actual fuck?" Riley muttered, before slinging it unceremoniously over his shoulder again. Amber could handle being roughed around a bit.

Then they continued for several more hours.

Amber was struggling to get her mind back for long enough to try her next form to try and burst out. She felt hazy when she was capable of thinking about it, but she was able to think for longer. Like a stage two. She was weakening some as well.

But she had another chance, and enough energy to try again. She got an inkling of how she could do it… It would be another few hours before she could do so.

Nothing interesting happened during that hour, though Yellow and Riley were paying close attention to the bag. The thrashing had begun to fade. "Amber is recovering remarkably fast." Yellow commented. Riley nodded and adjusted his arm that was holding the bag.

But while the two were quiet besides Yellow giving Riley information that she knew she would have to give him again later. Amber finally pulled energy into her body from her necklace once again. Her body started to grow, her bones creaking and some pain experienced as her body grew in size and weight. Her tail grew much bigger. She opened her mouth to try and blast her way out… And promptly filled the bag with water.

"What!?" Riley exclaimed, looking at the bag he was tightly gripping, it looking like a large ball, which was trying to expand. Then, it stopped. Riley had put his hands on it tightly to avoid any trouble, but it grew slightly lighter as it shrank slightly.

Riley felt at the balloon of a bag. "I think it's full of water…" he muttered. Then, his eyes widened. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed, and at Yellow's quick panic as she realized, Riley promptly dumped the bag opened, spilling out an eevee-... and quite a bit of water.

Amber began coughing as Riley checked on her. He pumped her stomach once, and she spit out quite a bit of water right in his face. Riley didn't care. He wrapped the eevee in his arms, making sure she wasn't dying at all.

She weakly began to squirm, but as said, she was weakened. Riley was able to safely hold her. "All right… All right, I think that's it. Whatever she's doing, it's using a lot of energy." Riley decided.

"Maybe that's why she's recovering so quickly. She's using so much of the energy her body is building up." Yellow figured. "Maybe she'll recover quickly."

"Hopefully. Her strength's down anyhow." Riley sighed with relief.

Yellow gave a wry smile. "Not used to being beaten up by tiny foxes?"

"Why's you have to bring **that** up?" Riley asked, doom and gloom about him as he leaned away from yellow, facing a tree and having his hand on the trunk while holding the squirming eevee in the other.

"Because that look of yours when you lose is funny." Yellow admitted. It was his own little quirk, she supposed. It certainly made his intimidating appearance more along the cute side of his persona. Under the muscle and the mad fighting skills that let him take on human and pokemon alike, he was kind of an emotional softie, especially when verbally burned.

Not that he would show it to anyone but the people he travelled with. They were the only ones who knew how to burn him like that anyhow.

Amber had started to giggle five minutes later. Giggling uncontrollably. "It's her mind resetting as her body recovers from what she ate" Yellow commented "She must have used up an incredible amount of energy doing… whatever she was doing to electrocute, burn, and almost soak you.

"So what the heck did she actually **do**?" Riley inquired, holding the eevee up by her shoulders before holding her to his chest again.

"Dunno. Some of her evolved forms know those moves, but she didn't evolve. She's still an eevee." Yellow pointed out. Riley looked again at the eevee struggling in his arm.

"Definitely an eevee." he nodded "She's a weird, sassy eevee with now apparent superpowers that make no sense, but she's an eevee."

They walked on for a while. Amber had stopped struggling, but wasn't talking. Finally, **finally** , the eevee was nodding off. Riley went back to holding her like normal, in his crossed arms. There was enough space for Scarlet to also snuggle up.

"Aww…" Yellow cooed, rubbing the heads of the two softly while they slept. They were both adorable, rather than adorable ribbon wearing pichu and equally adorable freaking **monster**.

"So then…" Riley turned to Yellow "What was Amber actually **doing**?"

Yellow expressed her confusion with a single word. "Dunno."

* * *

Amber stirred. It was really, really warm. She tried to remember what had happened. She stole some food from Riley, something he probably let her do. That bread had been absolutely delicious, but what happened after that? She remembered starting to play around in the restaurant, and then… it was all fuzzy.

The eevee slowly opened her eyes. The reason she had woken up was the warm sunset… or sunrise, on her eyes. The orange was quite beautiful. So was the yellow color.

" _Riley's probably got me in his arms. The usual. That's why it's warm."_

Scarlet was against her, also sleeping soundly. She snored quietly. Amber was cross. " _I don't want to share…"_ She thought to herself, before wondering at that. What was up with her mind? She felt groggy. She wanted to be the one Riley was holding.

" _Ew. Not in that way."_

She meant hogging the warmth of his arms when she slept to herself. Amber guessed that the pichu next to her was fine with sharing warmth. It wasn't like Amber had any nightmares at all. Not that night.

She stirred herself, looking at where they were. They were surrounded by trees, and a road travelled across a ways away, as Amber could tell as her ears detected a car. They were camping within the trees; Riley had chosen a tree branch and Yellow had put her tent up.

Amber twisted to lay with her stomach on Riley's chest, so that she was looking at his face. Still held by his arms but still laying in her new position, Amber brushed her head against his chin and twisted again, her head pressed against his chin while he slept. He didn't so much as wake up at all.

Why Amber took that action, she didn't know. She just did.

Yellow was the next to wake up. She had started waking up earlier because she had been ambushed a few times, hence keeping the guns around just in case. The girl sat up slowly in her tent and slid from her sleeping bag.

She quickly opened the tent and got out. She wore her clothes to be all of the time, of course. After collecting her pokeballs, careful not to wake the sleeping pokemon within, Yellow was ready to go just like that.

Noting that Riley was both still in the tree and asleep as well, Yellow quickly packed her belongings away and put away the tent. She was glad for his tendency to sleep; she didn't want him to question the second sleeping bag she had decided to put out next to her for some reason.

It wasn't as though she could say " _In case you got cold during the night or something"_ And have it **not** be awkward.

So instead, Yellow proceeded to pack up totally and then unpack the things needed for breakfast: Two plates and bowls for the pokemon, bags of pokemon food and a package of muffins. Riley hadn't had these yet.

" _Better than breadsticks…"_ Yellow thought to herself, mouthing the words but not saying them. mixed chocolate muffins and poppy seed muffins. What else for breakfast… " _I know."_ Yellow decided, and promptly pulled out a bag of pistachios to add. Such a random breakfast, but it would do. High levels of protein could probably wait until lunch. They needed something **good** after Amber's little trip.

Riley's turn to awake came next. Hearing Scarlet's snoring, he assumed that he was one of the first awake. He was wrong, but at least he was thinking about it. He then detected a pressure on his chin, and avoided looking down.

Scarlet's snoring was further away than the pressure, so it was probably Amber. What was she doing pressed up against him like that? By the feel of her small paws, he deducted that she was on her belly, with her head turned and pressed up against his chin. What led her to do that?

Riley gave a mental shrug and started to decide how to get this furball off of him without waking her… if she wasn't already awake. She must be asleep however. Her breathing was even and she was unmoving.

But she wasn't the best actor on the planet. A twitch of the paw told Riley all that he needed to know. "Bugger…" he muttered, bringing a hand to lift the eevee up to his face by the scruff. She was definitely wide awake.

"Hi." he greeted in a deadpan, looking into her eyes.

"Hey. Mind putting me down?" she asked. She seemed more subdued today. Maybe she was clearing her head of the final effects of that breadstick.

"Since you asked so nicely." Riley told her and set her down on his chest, where Scarlet quickly woke up.

"Is that food?" she asked hopefully, sniffing the air. She bounded away from the others to run straight down the tree and out of view behind the leaves.

"So what's up with you being all friendly?" Riley asked, a tilt to his head.

Amber gave the equivalent of a shrug. "Dunno. Just… Woke up like that." she lied. Could she really say that she had consciously put herself in such a… close position to his face? "Hey, it's not like I was sleeping on top of your **face**."

"Point." Riley conceded, poking the eevee in the chest "Because if you **had** , I would have suffocated to death in that collar."

Amber laughed at him and promptly jumped on his face in response, smothering him with her fluffy collar. Riley just breathed through his nose. That is, until Amber tickled his nose with her tail.

" **Whatchoo!** "

" _Riley's awake."_ Yellow thought as she prepared the pokemon food for everyone, especially a very excited Scarlet.

Riley had caught Amber before she could slide off of him and down, and kept her to his chest. Amber wondered what she was doing, but Riley hooked his legs on the branch and swung down.

Yellow looked at the origin on the rustling sound as Riley shot out of the tree, stopping when his waist was at the line of leaves. Amber was right side up in his arms. "Mornin'" the boy called from his upside down position, and Yellow found it incredibly funny as an image. She burst out laughing and giggling and generally having an excellent time watching the two before reaching around her and bringing out a camera.

"What's that?" Riley asked, head slightly tilted at the sight.

 **FLASH!**

"Oh…" Riley muttered, blinking the spots out of his eyes. "You trying to knock me out of this tree?"

"Just taking a picture of you and Amber. You two look **ridiculous**!" Yellow laughed, putting the camera back behind her where it was never seen again by the two photography subjects. Riley promptly fell out of the tree (on purpose of course) and flipped to land on his feet.

Setting Amber down, he traveled to where Yellow was setting out breakfast. "And these are?"

"Muffins." she replied as Amber began her feast "And pistachios."

"Never heard of 'em." Riley replied, sitting down on the grass and looking at the food. "Not another thing that will drive Amber mental again, right?"

"Hmm?" Amber's head rose from her food. What were the humans talking about? Her going mental? " _Nah"_ She thought to herself, assuming the pair themselves were nutters.

"No." Yellow answered "but they're good. Really good. We deserve it after yesterday."

"Damn right." Riley responded, plucking one chocolate muffin and one poppy seed muffin out of the bunch and proceeded to bite into them. "brilliant." he complimented the girl, his mouth full.

Yellow sighed. "Where are your manners?" She asked.

Riley gave her a blank stare.

"Oh… Don't give me that. I know Delia put a few things into your head." Yellow retorted to the unspoken comment. Riley muttered for a bit before continuing to enjoy his breakfast. He could probably eat the entire package, so Yellow carefully set out two more on a paper towel for him before surreptitiously putting the food away. They needed enough for another breakfast at least, in case they were stranded for another day before they could restock. On the other hand, they should make it to the pokemon center before Mt. Moon

"That she did. I just don't remember most of it." Riley admitted, rubbing his neck.

Yellow, Amber, Scarlet, and even Yellow's pokemon sighed in unison. "Of **course**." the muttered together in a group.

"Oi!"

"Yeah, Riley." Amber teased, sticking her tongue out "It's **that** obvious."

"Oh, like you're any better."

"I have an excuse!" Amber retorted, waving a paw above her head. "Look, Ri! No hands! Just paws!"

"Did you seriously just call me 'Ri'?"

"You bet I did!"

"C'mere, you!"

"Ack! Yellow, help me!"

Yellow laughed as Riley gave Amber one of his endearing yet crushing hugs that had the eevee breathless. Riley let her go so that she could flee, leading to her capture by the playful butterfree known as Kitty, who had wanted some fun after being in the pokeball for so long.

"Put me down!" Amber cried out as Kitty took to the skies and flew around a bit. Amber liked going through the trees at fast speeds with Riley, but she didn't know how good Kitty was at carrying people, even if she was much larger than the typical butterfree, enough to carry a human like Yellow.

Kitty giggled much like Yellow does and started circling in the air as fast as she could, but to the displeasure of the eevee in her grasp. There was much yelling and threatening.

Riley and Yellow finished their muffins, riley finishing all four of his before Yellow had her two done. "Excellent stuff." Riley complimented, patting his stomach, which seemed not to have distended at all. He proceeded to grab the bag of pistachios. "And these are?"

"Pistachios. Not native to this continent, so they're expensive, but good. You have to take the shell off first!" Yellow then exclaimed, seeing Riley about to toss the entire deal into his mouth. The orange haired boy froze and then proceeded to snap the little shell off of the nut.

"So?" Yellow inquired as the boy chewed. He was smiling quite broadly.

"These are fantastic!" he exclaimed, proceeding to grab a **massive** handful and begin the process of removing a shell again.

Yellow quickly took some for herself and hid the bag. "Now, now, we need to save it for the trip. It's not like they're cheap either." she said, muttering the last part.

Riley's new favorite food went away slowly, only because he had to remove the shells. Yellow stored that little fact that he loved it so much in her mind for later, just in case she needed to bribe him to do something.

" _Wow. What is wrong with me lately?"_ Yellow questioned herself.

Riley reluctantly gave Scarlet and Amber one each, though they didn't like it as much. The two proceeded to finish their breakfast themselves. The pokemon and the humans finished their food about the same time.

So they packed up and continued on. Kane town was the destination, and they had another day of walking ahead. They could perhaps reach the town by nightfall. They elected to walk, partly because Riley was quite hesitant to get to the point where Yellow had to leave to do… whatever she was going to do. It was also partly because Yellow was hesitant to do the same.

But mount moon loomed in the distance. The kids walked on, jabbering to each other with conversation mostly involving economics and how Riley could possible handle himself without his super helpful guide in Yellow.

Scarlet had fallen asleep in his arms, and both Yellow and Amber stole glances at her as they walked. Amber herself was feeling tired. Yellow, sensing this thought, had told her that it was liekly because her body had not properly recovered from using so much energy while under the effects of that breadstick.

"Never stealing food from you again…" Amber muttered, though she only intended to keep that promise in regards to the freaky breadsticks.

Riley, however, was fooled. "One good thing came out of this then." he commented, taking another drink from a water bottle. Yellow snorted quietly. He was ever so dense, wasn't he? He could be smart at times, but other times? No way. No, Amber was only going to avoid stealing breadsticks from this day forward.

But even though they were different species, the girls would stick together this time. Let the dense boy continue to be dense. Scarlet was more neutral, but she didn't know Amber quite like the others did. She was clueless as well.

"So… What happened while I was out?" Amber inquired, and the lot of them stumbled and nearly comically faceplanted. Amber didn't remember?

"Eh…" Yellow muttered.

"You were-" Scarlet began

"Asleep. You were recovering from the breadsticks." Riley lied to the eevee.

Yellow raised an eyebrow at the boy. Her eyes asked why Riley was lying to her. Riley shot Yellow a look that described how much he did **not** want the eevee to know how much she had beat him up when she was stronger than him.

That Yellow understood Riley and Riley understood Yellow spoke volumes to the girl, but Riley, once again, let the implications fly over his head as he happily walked along. Yellow sighed and followed along.

" _Yellow, may I run around?"_ Dody requested

" _I'd like to be out too."_ Chuchu thought, and Yellow was confused at how the two knew each other **that** well. At any rate, she let the two out of there. Chuchu was on Yellow's shoulder quickly, enjoying the breeze while her dodrio walked along with them right outside the gate... or pokeball.

"Dody wants to run." Yellow informed Riley.

"Yes! More running!" Amber cheered, pumping her paw in the air.

Riley nodded. "Well then, get on Dody and I'll take to the trees." he replied, and leapt up into the nearest branches with the pokemon on his shoulders getting into position to hang on. Yellow nodded and mounted her dodrio.

For this reason, they made it to the town before sunset. Riley darted through trees while the three headed bird pounded down the dirt with her large feet. The two pokemon with Riley had enjoyed the ride of course, ears blown back by the wind, fur being ruffled by the speed of which they were moving.

Yellow stopped at a cliff ahead of the small town called Kane Town, with the sun setting beyond it and the mountain looming to the left. It was an excellent spot to watch a sunset, or in their case, have some dinner.

"Unless, of course, you want to have dinner in town, but it will be late by then." Yellow finished after explaining all of this to Riley. He frowned at that.

"We made up a lot of time, so we have extra food." he commented, using the pokemon mentality of 'thou shalt not waste food'. Yellow shook her head.

"None of what we have will go bad." she reminded the boy. "We have the choice of eating conservatively and not paying as much for food, or going hungry for a bit longer, getting some real food at the town, and having to stock up less. Admittedly, buying food would be less expensive in theory if we are conservative with our money."

"Which depends on whether the restaurant is expensive." Riley finished.

Yellow nodded. "You **are** learning."

Riley's head tilted slightly. "Did you expect otherwise?" he inquired.

"Yes." Yellow and Amber teased simultaneously.

Riley pouted a bit and reached behind him to yank something out of his pack, a snack bar, which he quickly devoured. "I say we buy dinner" he decided "Not expensive."

"Sure." Yellow replied as Riley shifted his pack on his back. They watched the sunset for another while, before Riley began the process of walking away. Yellow, slightly disappointed that Riley didn't want to stay longer, also set her pack back up and continued on with Dody walking beside her.

Chuchu eventually gave Scarlet a ride on her head. The two were absolutely adorable looking as the girls spun on Yellow's hat, Scarlet carried by Chuchu. Like several of her pokemon, Chuchu was larger than most normal pikachu.

"Tell me, Yellow…. Why are your pokemon mostly bigger than the normal pokemon of their species?" Riley inquired.

"Oh, I feed them properly, and I have this connection with them that increases their abilities, and being around me for years let them grow bigger and stronger because of it." Yellow explained. Chuchu nodded and stopped spinning about on the girl's head.

Yellow readjusted her hat and the two pokemon got off of her head and back to her shoulder. Amber was now the only one on Riley's shoulder. Amber found time to bat at Riley's ears while the boy tried to figure out what he possibly wanted for dinner.

Food on the minds of Riley and some of the pokemon on Yellow's belt, random shenanigans in occurrence by some others like Amber and Scarlet, and Yellow trying to figure out her emotions, which she **used** to understand, they reached the limits of the town.

"Riley!" Yellow protested upon seeing the state of Riley's ear that Amber was batting, who accidentally used her claws a few times. "When you start bleeding, you're supposed to say something!"

"Huh?" he asked, putting his hand to his ear and pulling it back slightly bloody. "Huh."

Yellow comically faceplanted. "Idiot!" she yowled, ripping bandages out of her pack, from a rather easily accessible pocket, and began putting bandages on his ear. She glared at Amber.

Amber leaned back "hey, it was an accident. I forgot I had my claws out for the first few bats, and Riley didn't say a thing, so it couldn't be so painful." she protested before Yellow decided to find a way to punish her without angering Riley.

Yellow sighed eventually. "Fine. Just be more careful." she told the eevee. She stalked away, disappointed in their shenanigans. Why didn't Riley care about getting hurt? Blood loss was a serious issue!

"How about dealing with dinner instead?" Riley offered, distracting the girl from his shenanigans. Yellow nodded with her back turned, trying to think of a place. Last time she had properly stayed here was several months ago, and new restaurants might have popped up, but it was late; past dark.

"Well, it looks like we're doing fast food tonight. You'll have to do some extra exercise tomorrow." Yellow decided.

"I can do that." Riley replied easily. Of course he could. he could burn three times that in a few hours if he wanted to.

His tall, strong body was testament to constant training. Yellow kept finding herself either looking at his arms or his hair. He looked like his head was on fire. The image of Riley running about, actually on fire, and was conflicted. Laugh, or hope it never happens in real life, or both?

The second option was probably nicest to do, so that is what Yellow went with. It also involved not saying anything at all. That was also a plus.

So fast food it was. Riley would enjoy having a burger and fries again. Yellow reminded herself to find a place where the fries were bottomless, because they would have to be refilled several times. The boy could eat so much food…

* * *

After they ate, the lot of them travelled to the pokemon center. Pokemon centers have rooms like a hotel does, and they are specifically for trainers or perhaps police officers in the right circumstances. These two counted as both, really. Riley did have his own pokedex, even if he only ever used it on Amber.

Rooms in pokemon centers were often occupied in larger cities. Here, there should be several rooms available. They were less expensive than hotels and tended to be quite nice anyhow. Pokecenters get most of their money from a central fund that keeps pokemon centers all over the world running for the most part.

"Hello, dears." Joy greeted the two, who, in her eyes, looked like normal trainers. That is, until she recognized Yellow, at which point she started. "Oh! Hello, Yellow." She amended.

"Hello, Nurse Joy." Yellow greeted in return. "We have come to stay the night, before we travel through mount moon." she explained.

"Yes, of course. would you like me to give your pokemon a nice rest?" she asked, gesturing to one of the machines behind her. Yellow nodded and returned Chuchu and Dody and put her pokeballs down for Joy to put them in the machine, which began to hum.

Riley was understandably worried for the pokemon. "Yellow, is that really a good idea?" he asked, taking a step back.

"Nurse joy would never do anything to the pokemon. It's her job to heal them after all." Yellow assured the boy. Riley had no reason to distrust Yellow of all people. However, he was not about to entrust Amber or Scarlet to the woman.

"Amber and Scarlet will stay with me." he insisted, having tensed up a bit. Joy noticed that his distrust was mostly gone, as he trusted Yellow, but was too protective of his pokemon to let anyone else care for them.

"Would you like a room tonight?" Joy inquired.

"Just for tonight." Yellow nodded.

They paid the small amount, showed proof as was required that they were trainers (their pokedexes), and walked through a hall through the large buildings to get to the guest rooms. Yellow and Riley each got their own room, with a bed and a bathroom to the side. It was quite a nice room. There was even a desk as well.

Riley ignored the desk, tossed his pack and outer layers away so that he only wore his silver metal shirt and sweats and flopped unceremoniously into the bed, where the pokemon had decided to go while he did that.

Scarlet chose to sleep near his neck, and Amber was in his arms again. Sleep came quickly for them; it had been a long day, and Amber had worn them all down, no matter how much she remembered about her shenanigans.

Ambers dreams were that calm white again. Nothing came to her and did something to her with energy. Nothing scary happened. Riley was going to keep her in good health today. And so Amber relaxed. She wondered how travelling through a mountain would be like. Yellow had said that it had been turned into a proper path.

Tomorrow would tell. Otherwise, they didn't have much to go on.

* * *

Riley woke to Amber slapping him repeatedly. "C'mon! Wake up!" she shouted at him "Yellow couldn't wake you for breakfast!"

Riley blinked hazily at her. "So you were… slapping me?" he yawned, before turning to see Yellow at the door, giving him an apology with her eyes, but she was not so happy with Amber.

"She didn't even let me try to wake you." Yellow told him, walking forward. "She saw me and decided that she had a better way to wake you up. Also, you forgot to lock your door."

Riley frowned. "Locking the door?"

"Yeah. Lock. turn the fancy thing above the knob of the door and nobody can get in." Yellow explained, and Riley face faulted.

"Oh." he replied dumbly.

"Oh?"

"Oh."

Amber giggled in his face. "Get up, sleepyhead." she told him, poking the boy in the forehead with her paw. Riley grumbled and sat up in bed. Amber wound up on his head, having decided that it looked like a perfect bed for the moment. Even if she had woken a happy and fully rested eevee, she was still content nesting in his orange hair.

Scarlet was a bit more respectful, running up his clothing to be on his shoulder. However, both pokemon had to jump off (reluctantly) as Riley had to put his outer layers on. Amber grumbled as she was forced to go back to the floor for a little bit, but was eventually picked back up again along with Scarlet.

Riley put them back on his shoulders and gave Yellow a smile before shrugging his pack back on. He walked right out the door past yellow, and the girl followed. Together, they said goodbye to Nurse Joy and departed. Before the town surfaced out of nowhere, the center had been relatively small and stationed literally right next to the entrance to the mountain cavern.

Now it was a major structure nearer to the center, though still towards the back of the town near the mountain. It was the tallest building around still, though the only viable record is the fact that it was the tallest right now. being the tallest building around is not impressive if it is the only building around.

Yellow and Riley walked to the entrance of the mountain, a gaping opening in a flat rock wall. There were lights within, dotting the sides as they bathed the rock walls in their electric glow. The mountain truly had been renovated to make this path easier to traverse. It was impressive how much. Unless they left the general path, they would be just fine.

"Right. Mt. Moon." Riley said, looking the entrance over "Big mountain to walk through. How long will this take?"

"'Bout a day and a half's worth, even with the path. They had to mostly use the pre existing path when building it, so it is still twisty and goes up and down. They just made it safer really. Don't enter any tunnels that the have signs in front of them prohibiting it." Yellow replied.

"I like that. Do we have all we need then?" Riley asked, and then remembered. "We needed to shop for food, right?"

"I did it while you slept."

"...Oh."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Oh."

"Let's not start that again. In we go." yellow asserted, and all of them plunged into the depths of the mountain. Daylight gone; they left it behind, the two continued talking and walking and enjoying themselves. A trip like this was supposed to be fun, after all.

So why not enjoy themselves? Mount Moon was supposed to be safe nowadays.

* * *

 **All right! That's that! Next chapter is Mt. Moon and other various shenanigans if I can fit them. This chapter was shorter than most. Well, it was longer than the first few, but they were increasing in length. I explained why earlier, but i don't want to split Mt. Moon in half in terms of chapters.**

 **But other than that, I can think of very little that needs to be said. Please review this chapter, tell me yor thoughts, and enjoy the future chapters of New Age and TAC2!**

 **Thank you all for reading, and have a nice day.**

 **-Hyperjade.**


	10. Chapter Ten: Under the Moon

**Hey, everybody. This is Hyperjade.**

 **Jango: And Jango!**

 **Amber: The next New Age chapter approaches. This one is pretty big.**

 **Me: Well, let's let them see that for themselves. What we're doing here is review responses. First off... Phillip Harbindinger. Yes, last chapter had a few elements of pure randomness in it. The point of the factory being shut down and the tree was to make an example of how strong Amber was after consuming the bread. The tree was knocked over, not cut. As for Kitty, Yellow's pokemon have not had very much development, and from what I have seen of the manga, Kitty was pretty playful as a caterpie.**

 **Glad to have you back, ZLAXE. Yes, I have not specifically stated what Amber's ability in this story is, but I did make it as obvious as I could without it being a dead giveaway to the characters themselves. The attempt was to make it a mystery for the characters while the readers have a good idea how it could turn out. This story is in fact in 3rd person view. Anything that suggests otherwise is a mistake on my part.**

 **I was quite proud of the comparison between terrorists and the effects those breasticks have on pokemon myself, Raven. It is dfficult to find places for Scarlet to say something, because I could put a lot of comments around on her part that would not serve to advance the plot. I do intend to change that and have been working on it during this chapter.**

 **I hope to continue delievering the amusing content, and look forward to putting jokes into the script. I am willing to say that this chapter will not be as shenanigans filled as the breadstick chapter.**

 **Amber: That seems to be what we have to respond to, so enjoy the chapter.**

 **Me: Read on, everybody.**

* * *

 **Chapter Ten: Under the Moon**

A boy stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down towards Cerulean city. Inch and a half long orange hair was whipped about by the wind, as was his rather casual clothing, for the most part unsuitable for the colder weather. His loose T-shirt and abnormally short sweatpants left a lot of skin to feel the cold. Nevertheless, the boy did not shiver

The reason why the sweats were shorter was that he wore two white boots. They looked hefty and thick, covered in slots and looked like they were built to stay on unless the clamps were released. They looked more suited for someone in a suit of two-inch thick armor, with three inches of metal below the bottom of the foot.

Those boots shined in the light of the full moon. The boy was absolutely silent, not turning to face the couple who walked down the path behind him. The silence was abruptly shattered by a communicator ringing.

The boy silently pulled it away from his pocket, and looked at it. A picture of a man appeared on it, a tall man with short black hair and a scowl on his face. He bore a blue and grey suit with a letter 'X' on the left shoulder.

"You are being reassigned for your first mission. This was supposed to be practice, but in three days minimum your true quarry will arrive in the city. Keep an eye out. In case you forgot, here is an image of your target." he said, and the screen changed.

The boy was still completely silent as the screen changed to a picture of a young girl with long blond hair that once was concealed by a hat. She looked downright cheerful in the picture, her eyes closed and a look of delight on her face as she held the oversized raticate in her arms.

Yellow.

There were gasps of recognition behind the boy. He turned off the communicator instantly, knowing exactly where the two lovers had stationed themselves at the cliff to enjoy the lights of the city. They had not truly passed him by. They had recognized the image of Yellow, as most would. The mission had been compromised!

Mutely, the seventeen-year-old turned to look at them. The moon lit up half of his face, showing a bright turquoise eye.

And then he bolted forward without a sound, swinging his boot towards the two of their necks.

 **SHING!**

* * *

"We've been walking in the same direction for ages." Amber complained to the a familiar orange haired boy. Riley blinked his blue eyes and ruffled the fur on her head again.

"Yeah. We have."

Yellow was calmly walking, not exactly being involved in the conversation, though all of her pokemon were out and walking along with them. They occasionally would make small talk with Riley and Yellow. However, the side effect of having a safer Mt. Moon path was that it was incredibly, impossibly **boring**!

"We won't be bored too long." Yellow assured the group as a whole "We get to see a mssive chunk of ore they hit that they couldn't breach or melt at all without machinery that they couldn't begin to afford, so they had to mind around the various chunks. It was turned into kind of a forest of metal veins going from the floor to the ceilings within the heart of the mountain. It's actually quite a nice place to see when travelling, so instead of digging around it, well, you understand."

"Ohh, some fancy metal! I bet they made the road **longer** for the purpose of that sightseeing venture, did they?" Amber exclaimed.

"Hush, you. It might be what my staff's made of if they couldn't break it at all." Riley shot back "I would like to know what kind of equipment could actually break it, so that I might avoid it like it's a deadly disease."

"They pretty much have to focus the power of a nuclear blast into a small contained area, which reduces the metal into radioactive shards, and then they can mold those into an item and draw the radioactive energy from them." Yellow explained "very dangerous process, requires as much precision as launching a rocket into space. One hundred percent efficiency and care must be taken."

"What even is this metal called?" Amber asked of Riley. The boy shrugged.

"Dunno."

"How do you **not know**!?" Amber yelped "You walk around with a staff of the strongest metal discovered on earth, and you don't even know what it is?"

Riley shrugged again. "There are two things I need to know about it. It absorbs elemental and kinetic energy, and that I can beat things up with it." he replied casually.

"Yeah, because **that's** all you need." Amber deadpanned.

"I'm the fighter, Yellow's the smart one, **you're** the fox one." Riley retorted

"Hey!" Amber protested "I can fight!"

"Right."

"I can!"

"Even if you could, I would be the one doing the fighting, considering I swore to protect you." Riley said, ending the argument instantly.

Silence reigned for the next hour or so because there was nothing to talk about. The group moved through the cavern until Yellow checked her phone and determined that it was lunchtime. They all sat against the wall, alone in a long corridor. Yellow pulled lunch out of their bags.

Lunch was a large amount of non-perishables of course, but it was still good enough to eat, as Riley discovered. Amber wanted some dried fruit, but Riley only relented once Yellow informed him that he would **not** cause another destructive frenzy if the girl had a few pieces of dried fruit.

Riley gave Scarlet and Amber enough of his food to pacify the two girls, and proceeded to finish his own lunch while the pokemon enjoyed their pokemon food. Yellow, predictably, was the last one to finish her food by a wide margin.

And then they walked on. It was several hours before the path stopped and the cavern opened up into an impressive sight. Column-like structures that were actually veins of white metal stretched from the ceiling to the floor, spreading out like roots at the ceiling and floor, the 'roots' along the floor were just visible in the dirt as to not be a tripping hazard.

"Impressive." Riley commented, absently twirling about his weapon of choice while looking at the posts of metal.

"What caused them to all look like that?" Scarlet asked out of the blue as they walked through the forest of nearly indestructible metal."

"Nobody knows." Yellow responded.

"Fascinating." Amber deadpanned.

Scarlet did not catch the sarcasm in Amber's voice, and so reacted. "It **is** fascinating! They're like those weird trees I saw a picture of once. That art store we walked by, it was in one of them."

"The trees with rootlike branches?" Yellow asked "Yes, I suppose that would make sense. Thougth it is a bit more widespread than that. This will be around for a few minutes of walking."

Riley stopped at the largest vein in the center of the strange place, and he tapped his staff against it a few times. "No reaction, kind of like when I was fighting that Zach asshole."

"That's because they're simple metals." Yellow responded "Powerful, and difficult to break, but if it reacted to itself it would always do so. Your staff would be reacting to itself constantly."

Riley nodded, and then stepped back to look at the pillar of white metal. Yellow seemed to get an idea out of nowhere.

"We **are** kind of in the middle of a major tourist attraction" she murmured, bringing out her phone and a small metal device.

"What's that?" Riley inquired, now inspecting the device.

"This." Yellow replied, shaking the metal piece of equipment once, and it split apart as small legs extended towards the ground, and the top flipped opened up and the entire thing formed a usable, albeit fragile tripod, which she set her camera on and turned it on.

"You're just equipped with the weirdest stuff." Amber muttered as Riley leaned towards it.

"What, why, and how?" he asked.

"A tripod for a camera or phone, because I want to take a picture of us by this rare scene, and if I explained it to you, your brain might overload." she teased.

"Oi!"

Amber laughed. "Got 'im!"

Scarlet was also laughing at him, and Riley proceeded to mutter something about being in a road trip with mostly girls, which seemed to be a major thorn in his backside at this point.

At least Gravvy, Omny and Ratty were there, though none of them spent much time speaking. No words of encouragement or even understanding for Riley as he was squished between all the females in the picture, while the three male pokemon were off to the side, still in frame. It was quite a weird picture, but Yellow shrugged and put everything away. The tripod packed itself up neatly with an upward flick, which made life easier for everyone.

"Quick, efficient device that you manage to fit in your pockets alongside all the other weird technological… stuff that you have somehow stuffed into your back pocket without making your clothes look all bulky." Riley deadpanned.

"Yep."

"So this is where my staff came from then?" Riley asked, turning back to the pillar of white metal.

"I don't actually think so. There are a few places with this metal about, and nobody is willing to take the metal away from such a populated area because of what is required to mine it, so nobody is supposed to mine it at all. Whoever built your staff and the saws of that Zach guy were either humans doing it illegally, or… Well, I would not be surprised if a legendary went and pulled it off." Yellow replied helpfully.

That information pretty much ended the conversation as the group decided to continue on. They did want to be in cerulean in three days or so, and a day of walking in the forest to follow was in order, so they had to get through here.

They picked up the pace, walking into the torch-lit tunnel.

* * *

"Jenny, we have an urgent situation!"

Officer Jenny of Cerulean City stood up from her desk, looking at the man who had barged into her office. "What is it, Dave?" she asked, worried as she stepped closer to the man.

"Bodies. Three of them, up at the cliff overlooking Cerulean." he gasped for breath, hunched over slightly "They were just found. Just lying there, killed overnight. Somebody called it in this morning during his morning hike."

"Cause of death?" Jenny inquire swiftly, pushing past the man through the door and out to the vehicles.

"The two at the cliff's edge, boyfriend and girlfriend, had their throats slashed. Clean cut. The third was down the path, within sight of the first two, and the top of his skull was crushed with a deep blade wound in his head as well, as though somebody stuck a knife blade on the end of a large metal mallet."

"Two completely different causes of death?" Jenny asked, confused. She got on her bike, which had a sidecar for the man to join her going to the scene.

"Yes. It suggests one killer, because of the circumstances and the fact that the man had likely been a witness to the crime, or at least found it. Either the murderers were in a group of two or more, or the murderer has multiple weapons. Heavy ones." he replied, shifting through the papers in his hands as Jenny took off.

Jenny grimaced. It made little sense. They would have to wait until they got to the scene to see more. "What is the status up there?"

"We blocked it off with police tape and are doing our best to keep others from panicking by setting a perimeter to deter people towards smaller side paths." the man replied, closing the booklet he held that contained the information for the case and holding on as Jenny hit a pothole and kept driving as fast as was legal and perhaps a bit faster. Even if there was no apparent danger, this Jenny preferred to solve the case as fast as possible.

They made it in twenty minutes. Cerulean was a decently sized town after all. As Janny roared up to the scene and skidded to a stop, the other officers that were there and taking notes or otherwise working on the scene looked up to greet her.

"Hello, Ma'am." they chorused as Jenny drew near the bodies. Untouched in an attempt not to contaminate any evidence, they were plainly visible to see. The two younger ones were side by side on the ground, clean cuts through their necks. The man further down the road did look like he had been crushed, with a majority of the now dried blood having originated from a point on his head where a stabbing weapon had been sent through it, possibly post-mortem.

"Two very different MOs." Jenny noted as she walked around the bodies for different angles. She saw dead bodies every once in awhile. It came with the job, and while she was revulsed as all sane people are by such a sight, she had to focus on the when, the why, the what, and the how.

The man who had accompanied her nodded. "One moved for the clean and efficient kill. He silenced them and killed them with the same strike. It would suggest a person who is not a psychopath, but shows a large amount of skill in fighting."

"The third, on the other hand…" Jenny murmured, walking towards that one "is so badly damaged it took you…"

"Half of an hour to ID the body." the man confirmed, not bothering to say the name. "Whereas the other two barely took five minutes."

"Do you think the second murderer had a motive for causing such unnecessary damage to an already deceased victim?"

"Unlikely. The time of death is estimated to be the same, and considering the position of all the bodies, this man was likely the one to witness the execution of the others. These two could not have seen the man get murdered before being attacked, and they would have had to turn their backs on the killer and were still killed in front… There is no evidence of anyone moving the bodies at all."

"But **why**?" Jenny asked in a frustrated manner "usually, post mortem mutilation either has to do with sadistic tendencies or a particular motive, most likely the former in this case, so why did the killer with the swift and quick killing technique do his deed first? I would suggest that he had been led to such an action, but the swipes were far too skilled for that."

"Swipe. Singular, I think." an inspector declared from near the two young adults. Jenny rushed over. "What did you say?" she asked hurriedly.

"If they fell over right from where they had been standing, they would have been standing right next to each other. The slash on their throats make a clean line, as if he killed them both with a single strike." he explained, pointing to the slightly different heights of the cuts on their necks. Now that Jenny was paying attention to it, the fact that the two were very similar in height made the difference in elevation of the cut clear.

"Very skilled, then."

"This makes no sense." Jenny complained "everything is in reverse order, the victims have absolutely no connection, completely different causes of death, different ages, different skin and hair color, for goodness sakes. Do they have anything in common, or… Most likely the man here was an innocent bystander who was walking by when these two died, and the man's accomplice, or whatever he is, struck at him."

"We considered the man having a pokemon, but these wounds are all from weapons. A sharp knife or other clean cutting weapon, and a giant mallet with a stab wound…"

"Unless the crushed skull was caused by a pokemon's strike." a different officer mused "and the same person used his weapon to do more damage."

"but **why**?" Jenny muttered again "even if a pokemon did do the smashing, the first two deaths have no correspondence with the third."

"Ma'am…" the inspector called slowly from his evaluation of the third victim.

Jenny rushed over. "Found something?"

"Definitely. The blade used to stab this man's skull was wider than the blade used to cut the deep wounds into the throats of the younger victims." he explained "Two different weapons, and the unnecessary destruction of his skull puts more weight onto the theory of two killers."

"We must not rule out a personal motive with this one."

"Of course not, but the chances of that being what happened are very, very low in comparison."

The officers and inspectors stopped their discussions promptly and looked at the scene with a new eye. "One last thing." a detective said, looking at the ground around the first two dead. "There are footprints around the cliff's edge." he noted "Deep ones. Whoever it was, they were heavy, or wore large boots. They can also apparently move fast."

"An odd combination. Do you think it is related to the case?"

"...Possibly. However, we should expect to be looking for someone that is fast on their feet. It makes no sense." he muttered.

Jenny frowned. "I know the feeling."

* * *

"It's about time for bed." Yellow announced many hours later. They had only taken a single rest after the midway point, and like Yellow had wished, had made a lot of progress. Every other person or pokemon cheered and collapsed onto the rocky surface without so much as a wince.

Yellow sweatdropped at the nine of them. "Really, it wasn't that long of a walk." she muttered, walking back to Riley and leaning against the wall as he was.

"I could do this all day if it wasn't…" Riley gave a massive yawn "nighttime. I'm sleepy, not physically tired."

Amber peeked at him from underneath her tail, which had been covering her eyes. "Suuuuure…."

"Oh come off it." Riley scolded, holding his pointer finger in front of Yellow, who had gotten a teasing smile that suggested that she was about to become involved in the shenanigans. Not today.

He looked to Scarlet to see if the girl had been about to speak as well, but the pichu was curled up on his shoulder, sound asleep. She tended not to be involved in **every** teasing session that Riley had to sit through.

Without another word, the boy gestured towards Amber with open arms, waiting for her to jump unto his arms, where he would keep her from having nightmares. Ensuring that Scarlet was also secure, Riley leaned back and slept on the stone floor.

'morning' came when Yellow shook Riley awake. He opened his eyes not to see Yellow, But just brown fur, as Amber's tail had found it's way over his eyes. The boy slowly moved to extract the tail from his vision to see Yellow, who was above his face with her hand on his shoulder.

Considering she had grown a bit since the last dangerous scenario she had been involved in with Green and their other friends, It was a bit awkward to have her hovering over him like that. "You're a bit close…" he muttered, slowly starting to sit up while Yellow moved away quickly, realizing what that must have looked like.

A bright tone of red appeared on her cheeks as she realize, and was on the path to start apologizing, but Riley just chuckled and stood up before she could say a word. "It's not like you meant to make it awkward." he nonchalantly continued, silencing the girl.

Yellow continued to sit there and blush while Riley settled Amber in one arm and swung his pack onto his back with little to no hesitation. Why on earth was her mind on… other things besides her job? And getting to the next city? Instead her mind was in shambles after realizing what it would have looked like to Riley with her hovering over him like that.

Riley re-wrapped Amber in both of his arms, and waited for Yellow to get up to continue moving. Her pokemon were again in their pokeballs. While she did, she began talking once more. "Right… Uh, moving on. We should be out of here within a few hours, considering we took the **one** turn in this path and are now well on our way to the cliffs outside."

"Followed by forest." Riley continued for her "Followed by city."

"Right."

They walked for fifteen minutes, the pokemon still asleep in their pokeballs or in Riley's love or on his shoulder. That was when Yellow had a moment where she blinked and yanked out her phone. "Stupid me…" she muttered, tapping a contact on her phone app.

"That thing works in here?" Riley asked. His own phone wasn't working. Why on earth was Yellow's phone working?

"Hush, you." she silenced him, waiting for the call to be picked up.

 **click**

"Hello, Yellow." the very tired woman's voice spoke through the speakers on Yellow's phone.

"Officer Jenny of Cerulean." she replied formally.

* * *

Jenny sat at her desk, the files from the recent case scattered about. She was very tired now. Twenty-four hours since the triple homicide. That's how long it had been. "I assume you want a report?" she asked, blinking several times and sipping her coffee.

"Your tone and clear exhaustion is half of the report I needed." Yellow's voice can back slowly "What happened?"

"Triple homicide."

" **Triple**?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend, and who we think was a witness to the crime."

"Cause of death?"

"Two entirely different causes. The first two had their throats cut cleanly, but the third… the top of his skull was crushed and then a blade was stabbed into his skull afterwards. Weird thing is, the one that was brutally killed was the apparent witness, and the first two were likely the first to die. One would expect the person with the violent method of killing would be the one to make the first kill." Jenny gave Yellow an overview.

Yellow seemed to hesitate over the phone. "Most likely two different killers, the violent killer struck last, and apparently towards the witness, and the killers seem to be working together despite having such completely different MOs, and… Where?"

"Right on the cliff viewpoint overlooking the city and surrounding areas."

"The most popular viewing point besides the one up at the cape." Yellow finished. Jenny heard her sigh. "That is completely nonsensical."

"Precisely. We have no leads at all, the two were boyfriend and girlfriend, but the third had literally zero connection to them. he was visiting from Sinnoh, actually. He got there **the night before**."

"Why was he there?"

"Moving. He found a job in the city that paid well, and was due to be settling in over the next few months. As I said, literally no connection between him and the two others. Those two were boyfriend and girlfriend, just being up there for their romantic evening. Somebody, a very heavy somebody wearing at least heavy boots was a part of the situation. Other than that, we have no other useful information." Jenny told Yellow over the phone.

"We will be there in a few days of travel. I would be glad to assist in the investigation before I travel back to Viridian." she responded.

Jenny started. "What about your travelling companion?"

"Riley is going to be ready to travel on his own by the time I have to leave." Yellow reported.

Jenny heard a muted "oi!" sound from Yellow's side of the line. Yellow shushed him and apparently turned her attention back to her phone.

"Is there anything else I should know?" she pressed.

Jenny rubbed her eyes and drank her coffee. "Just… Stay safe, you two."

Yellow snorted. "I've got the kid that can beat up a tropius without injury to himself here to defend me. I'll be fine." That girl could always find something to be amused by. Jenny thought that it probably kept her sane to do that.

The girl had been through so much danger at this point.

* * *

"Glad to know I still stand as a protector of a sort" Riley muttered as Yellow finished the call and hang up "considering how much you tease me about not being as tough as I most certainly am…"

Riley's grumbling did little to show how he actually felt, of course. Being around Amber and Scarlet and Yellow was… Nice. Having a human companion had proven to be good fun. The freaky awakening however had shaken the boy up more than he cared to admit.

A female human had been hovering above him as his eyes opened, after all.

Riley flinched. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. He had been listening. Murdered humans, right off of Cerulean. "Looks like we'll be picking up the pace." Riley commented, beginning to move forward.

"Yes." Yellow muttered grimly, walking forward again.

They walked for another few hours before a pinprick of brilliant light reached their eyes. Amber was awoken by it. "...Huh?" she blearily blinked her eyes repeatedly as she looked at it, before getting very excited and leaping out of Riley's arms. Scarlet, having awoken at the same time, also joined in.

Riley decided in an instant to outdistance them massively. Yellow couldn't help but chuckle as Riley dashed by the sprinting pokemon, laughing as he passed them, disappearing into the light of the tunnel.

"Oh don't you dare leave me in this tunnel alone!" Yellow exclaimed, running after them. It was good fun to be involved in such games. They were technically still children, after all. Having fun was their job, and if they did not do it, things could go south quickly in their minds. A delicate balance was needed between maturity and childhood.

They escaped mt. Moon completely unharmed. "I refuse to believe we actually got through that whole place without being attacked by team rocket, trapped and forced to go a less conventional route, and slash or getting involved in some other freaky shit." Riley commented, crossing his arms at the cave exit.

Yellow blinked at the realization. "Yeah, we did just get through a whole day plus of walking through a cave and didn't get mauled, tracked, burned, crushed, zapped, eaten, or made a fool of." she confirmed slowly, as if also being surprised. "how the hell did we manage that?"

"Riley's kinda our bad luck charm, so by all rights, we should have had to deal with **something**." Amber put in, not willing to let a chance to insult the boy fly out of her reach.

"Oi!"

Scarlet was giggling at their antics, though she covered her ears right before any cursing could be heard. She gleefully jumped away from Riley and up a tree to eat an apple she had promptly picked. "It can't be time for a snack yet." Riley said, covering his eyes from the sun as he looked up at her.

"Oh, but those apples look **perfect**." Yellow disagreed, and began to climb the tree herself to pick several and put them in her bag, along with enough for her and her team.

"On my way." Riley said, leaping easily up into the tree to grab Amber and him a large apple each. Yellow released her pokemon, the larger ones in their ranks being on the ground while the rest sat in the tree, and everyone took time to enjoy a large, sweet apple each.

While that was completely uneventful, Riley and Yellow still had to plan out their route. "This bit is absolutely loaded with cliffs, followed by a small forest. It should take us two days to get there, mostly in this terrain. I say we follow the paths." Yellow nodded to her own words.

Riley considered for a bit. "If we take a more common road, will we meet more trainers in general? I am kind of supposed to make sure that they are treating their pokemon right."

"If we take the most used paths, we might find a few trainers. However, many people do not brave the path from cerulean to Mt. Moon without being in larger groups, as the clifflike terrain can be rather dangerous on the way back compared to the way forward. You could handle it fine, but anybody without rock climbing ability would tremble at the sight of a few of the cliffs we will see in… about half a day? Maybe more." Yellow informed the boy.

"Then that is what we should do." Riley nodded, and set his pack back onto his shoulders as Scarlet and Amber habitually clambered onto his shoulders, and he gave them both a scratch behind the ears before walking forward.

" _He's certainly enthusiastic today."_ Yellow noted as she recalled most of her pokemon but Dody. "Dody, I know you want to run." she told the three headed bird, having heard her friend's thoughts.

Dody chirped out a confirmation, which Riley heard. He smiled. "Hold on tight, girls." he whispered to the small pokemon, who proceeded to oblige. He took a stance in preparation for a nice, overdue run.

And Dody started the race.

Riley could be better 0n the ground, but for the sake of exhilaration for all three of them, him and his riders, he was going across some of the cliff edges and jumping along the terrain. Pillars of rock reached the same level as cliff edge to their right, so Riley had decided to do a little parkour while Dody and Yellow raced on the lower level.

The wind was powerful, whipping their hair or fur about. They were fighting the air current, and were moving very fast as well. " _This would be why we get places faster than we normally would be."_ Yellow thought to herself as they moved forward. It would be quite a while before either Dody or Riley tired, so they would make major improvements on their time of arrival.

Riley's part of the terrain became more rocky and dangerous about half an hour later. Yellow considered calling him down, but the boy still seemed to be doing just fine. Yellow knew from experience that there was a collapsed portion of the upcoming rock cliff that had not been cleaned up yet, amidst a field of black, dangerous rocks formed from a very old magma trail.

Riley could probably manage, but Yellow did not want him to try. A bad fall in that mess would halt their progress even more than the basalt field would if they stopped to be careful. Yellow decided to sstop him when they got there.

Which should have taken an hour, but the two racers were having fun and were moving quickly. A much smaller overall time later, Yellow saw the beginnings of the solidified magma flow.

"Riley!" she howled over the wind, getting his attention, at which point she had Dody skid to a stop. Riley did the same immediately, scattering some rocks off of the small pillar of rock that erosion had left alongside the cliff.

"What's up?" he asked, looking confused.

"Why are we stopping?" Scarlet inquired.

"The rock fields ahead have collapsed into the road at a few points, and has not been cleaned up yet" Yellow informed him "Dody can't run over it, and I don't really want you sprinting across it either."

Riley, secretly touched that she cared for his health, crossed his arms and smirked anyways. "I could handle it." he protested, and Amber nodded and pumped a paw into the air in a general 'yeah!' motion.

"Get down here." Yellow's voice was firm and unyielding. The girl knew he was playing around, but she too hid the smile that would have appeared on her face. Riley shrugged and leapt down with ease. Landing without harm, he walked over to look over the site. It would indeed be slow going over these bits. Walking it would be.

"Sure. You might want to-" Riley was about to suggest recalling Dody, but Yellow had interrupted by doing just that. "...Right."

"Follow the black shard road then. Glad it only lasts a half hours worth of walking." Yellow muttered to herself, stepping up to the higher elevation basalt pile that covered the road.

"How did it all collapse, anyhow?" Riley inquired, "I mean, that is a lot of rock to fall at once for a short cliff like that, and though there is a lot of it right above us, would it all have fallen at once?"

"Yes, actually. One wrong person moved the wrong rock, and the pile above the road loosened, followed by the entire pile pouring onto the trail like how a wave in the ocean crashes down from one point onward." Yellow took the time to explain as they began picking their way through the rocks.

"And this person?"

"A particularly adventurous… and dense trainer who tried to climb the rocks rather than use the paths. He was badly wounded, but nothing permanent. Nobody else was around to be hurt by it."

"That's good then. I suppose that this trainer is alright then."

Yellow glanced at the boy. "Since when do you care so much about other humans?" Riley did not answer, however, and Yellow flinched. He was probably thinking of the pokemon trapped in their pokeballs rather than the boy, and his now frustrated expression told Yellow he knew that his thought process was different than most people would think at first.

"...I wonder what happened to the pokemon who the boy kept in their pokeballs… Where they taken from the irresponsible trainer, or forced to continue travelling with him and potentially put in danger?" he finally asked, absentmindedly picking his way across the landscape.

Yellow flinched again. "...I don't know." she answered honestly. She acquired a frown, thinking about it. It was most likely that they had stayed with him, not by their own choice. If he got in a dangerous situation again, would they make it? They would certainly be in danger. Yellow could only hope that he had learned a life lesson, but some trainers… Just didn't. "It's m-"

"Most likely that they were forced to stick around, yeah." Riley muttered, a slightly darker tone in his voice now. He clammed up and silently walked effortlessly across the rocky surface. He easily outdistanced Yellow, though he was not attempting to.

Yellow understood that he was not intending to leave her behind. he was stressed, and upset. He was moving faster as a result. Yellow struggled to follow him, and there were next to no flat points to put her feet.

Which ended with her tripping and falling. Riley froze at the sound of a yelp of pain, and whirled to see Yellow nursing a bleeding leg. He leaped over to her in an instant and looked over the wound. She had slammed her kneecap into the rocks trying to catch up to him. Specifically, a piece of basalt with a point to it that was sticking out.

"Damn…" he cursed as Yellow whimpered in pain. Yellow had the supplies for medical attention. She was used to pain, and got her bag of medical supplies out instantly.

"Get that small towel in your bag." she ordered. Riley complied instantly. he marvelled at how, even as she was whimpering in pain, she knew what to do in terms of medical things. The fire orange haired boy ripped the small towel out of his pack (thankfully it was only halfway down in the large amount of things in his pack), scattering the items on top of it.

He had gotten a few wounds before, when his fighting was not so top notch that he got hit with a few attacks that tore him up a bit. In most cases, there were pokemon like an audino around that could use heal pulse to no cost to their own aura compared to pokemon like riolu.

"Put pressure on-" Yellow began, assuming that Riley had no idea what he was doing, but she hissed in pain as he braced the knee with one hand and pressed the hand towel down hard on her knee. She worried for a moment that he was going to press too hard and hurt her more than he should, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

" _For once."_ she thought, replacing contempt with a degree of amusement and a very slight degree of affection in that term… In terms of friendship, of course. Nothing else. Never anything else.

"You've lost a startling amount of blood from one wound." he noted calmly, having mostly stemmed the blood flow. Yellow looked at the ground underneath her, and saw that while it was difficult to describe the liquid moving across it's surface, the only thing coating the rock beneath her could be was blood. Most of it had already flowed down under the rocky surfaces they stood on, striving towards the ground underneath.

"I'll be fine."

"Yellow." he said sternly, dragging Yellow's attention from her knee. "Why didn't you just call for me? You knew it was dangerous to move so fast across the rock field."

Yellow had an array of options, from being appreciative, to accepting that she made a mistake… She chose the third option. "Hypocritical much?" she found herself asking, a teasing smile making its way to her face.

" **I** can handle it. **you** get a bloody knee for your troubles." he shot back, also with a small smirk.

"You were the one to get hurt…" Scarlet murmured. She had not really understood the smiles playing on their faces, and thought that Yellow was antagonizing him.

"Right. You have the fancy bandages." Riley pointed out, spurring Yellow into action as she realized that she was the only one to know how to use bandages. Riley hadn't had such useful things where he had loved before, and relied on the healing abilities of pokemon.

Not having a pokemon with a costless heal pulse around was likely a mistake. But that is what medical supplies were for. Yellow pulled the bandages out of her most accessible pocket and began to give Riley instructions.

"We are going to use the medical supplies in this order" she stated, putting the different things down, to clean, sanitize, and bandage the wound. "And by we, I mean you. You need to learn how to use these very supplies, possibly on your own self." Riley gave her a nod, signalling for her to continue.

"The blood flow seems to be slowing. Carefully remove the towel." Yellow ordered, and Riley complied. Some blood still flowed, but there was some solid material around the wound, causing some of the blood loss to decrease.

Yellow continued to give the boy calm instructions. The truth was that she wanted to squal in pain every time he did one of the things she told him to do, most of which involved directly disinfecting the wound with medical supplies, or pressing down on the wound with different things. Even him **touching** it hurt.

But eventually, Yellow had a long strip of gauze wrapped around her knee. Riley helped the now silent girl up, let her hang on his shoulder to avoid putting weight on it. She would need to recover, but not here. Not in the middle of a dangerous lava field. Even if said lava field was frozen into rock, it was still dangerous.

"You did a very good job for a first timer." Yellow complimented the boy, checking on her knee. She could not walk on that right now, but as soon as they got to the edge of this field, she could restl If she remembered properly, there was a shorter one down the line, but today what mattered was getting her across this one.

"This is what we get of rushing. I'm sorry." Riley apologized. Yellow looked him in the eye.

"This is **not** your fault. I could have done something smart, like say something, instead of trying to catch up to you." she assured him, content to take the blame in this case. Riley grunted in response and started to move at a slow pace across the field, allowing Yellow to carry some of her weight on her other leg.

It took an hour to cross the field, with no breaks, but Riley was fine with it. He bore the weight of everybody, but he could do that quite well. When he stepped onto the grass, he made certain to clear the area with residual basalt chunks, and helped Yellow sit.

"...Thank you." she murmured, grateful that he had put so much effort into keeping her from getting further injured. She looked up into his somewhat worried eyes, noting that he was in no way tired at all. Considering he was basically carrying her for an hour, along with two packs and two additional pokemon, that was impressive. Looking at the muscle he had in his arms, she did not have much trouble believing it. Even if those muscles were not very bulky, they were defined and he was clearly stronger than any other she had met.

"No problem." he replied nonchalantly, dropping to the ground next to her and pulling a few snack bars out of his pocket. "Food?" he offered, tossing her one without waiting for an answer. Yellow caught it with minimal effort, considering it was just her leg that was hurt, and the two ate their snacks while Riley snuck a few pokemon treats out of his other pocket to give to Amber and Scarlet. The pokemon happily feasted on the treats, finding that they loved the taste of this new thing Riley had presented to them.

"Hang on…" Amber said, crumbs falling from her mouth "Have you been sitting on these things the **entire trip**?"

"Since Kane Town, yeah." Riley responded, and Yellow reflected on how clueless he was about what was coming for him. "...Why?"

"You've been keeping treats from us then." Amber batted at his face with a paw.

"Oi!" Riley protested against the strike. The boy muttered something inaudible to Yellow, but Amber heard "It's not like I got that much, and… I forgot, okay?"

"You forgot."

"Yes, Amber, I forgot. You're acting strangely today, you know that?"

"Yes, I am, and I feel **very** hungry. Give me more!" Amber tackled him. He quickly had the struggling fox by the scruff and was looking into her eyes. "Jeez. I thought that breadsticks were the only food to make pokemon go nutters." he muttered as Amber played out he little trick.

However, Pokemon mind reader Yellow had other ideas. "Enough of the trick, Amber." she scolded "We're kind of in a bad situation right now."

"How so?" Scarlet appeared from behind Riley's shoulder, where she had hidden when it looked like Amber had gone nuts again. "Yellow's gonna be fine, right?"

Riley grimaced. "Yellow is in pain. That cut's going to slow her down a lot. For all our haste, we're going to be late getting to cerulean like this." he explained "I will not rush her, nor should either of you."

Amber closed her mouth and nodded. Riley looked serious compared to normal. His face slowly slackened as he seemed to think about it. "Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you." he apologized, before setting the eevee down on his lap. She gave him a small smile before curling up right there to take a small nap.

Riley looked at the dirt in his arms after a half hour of rest. "I need another of those amazing showers." he proclaimed. Yellow laughed at him.

"Yeah. You do, Stinker." Yellow chuckled, ignoring Riley's indignant 'Oi!" and started checking her pack to make sure she had everything. This teasing was becoming more childish slowly as she ran out of things to tease him about. She knew she should be getting her act together. Something was making her want to affectionately tease the boy. What, she didn't know.

The two humans prepared to leave. Yellow gingerly put her weight on her left leg and yelped immediately in pain. Instead of letting her walk, Riley got her balancing on him again, only walking with her right leg and putting the rest of her weight on Riley.

This brought their cheeks rather close together, which Riley seemed to be ignoring fine. The oblivious boy continued to jabber on to Amber and Scarlet; Amber had turned Riley's hair into a makeshift bed as much as she could, and Scarlet was on his shoulder. The two were awake, but in the warmth of the sun, it was preferable to curl up when possible and soak up the rays.

Amber soon did fall asleep on his head as they slowly moved, and time moved on.

* * *

Scarlet awoke to find the light fading. So much for being awake again. What was she smelling? The little electric mouse brought her head up and sniffed the air, trying to locate the smell. It was weird, like the smell of actual lightning. Ozone.

This meant that a storm was in progress. At least, it was supposed to be. The sky was clear. As an electric type, pokemon like Scarlet had to be able to know when thunderstorms were occurring. Electric types used the residual electricity in the air to do various things. Some needed it to boost their abilities, some needed the residual energy to stabilize their own growing energy or release energy if they get sick and need to release energy.

Pokemon electricity was not the same as lightning. Pokemon used electrons only in their blasts, Yellow knew. Nor was the attack superheated, rather, while it was capable of toasting things fine, it was more about incapacitating the opponent with the large amount of electrons.

The problem was that there was no storm. At all. There was absolutely nothing in the sky aside from the setting sun and the rising moon, just past the point of being a full moon.

They were not the only one to be around at this time, however. An eighteen year old girl knelt on the cliff above the group of travellers. The pichu was sniffing the air, causing the girl to frown. Small bolts of lightning arced along her,, illuminating a yellow and black set of clothing. The top looked like a short sleeved shirt, though two long yellow ribbons extended backwards from the shoulders. The pants were more like a pair of sweats mixed with combat gear. Her shoes looked simple enough, though unlike the rest of her clothing, they were jet black.

The girl brushed her blond hair away silently, and concentrated. " _Kai, are you certain of this? It could hurt them a lot."_

The answer came immediately. " _It improves their chances later, and this particular angle will make them more cautious of things above them overall."_ The male voice replied in her head.

" _A bonus, I guess you would call it."_ the girl exhaled through her nose quickly " _I'm not the only one who could do this, Kai."_

" _You are the one who could prepare it without being noticed. I would have forgotten that you were doing it at all had you not just said something."_ came the mental reply.

" _Thanks."_

" _Not my fault you have that effect on people's minds. Just make sure nobody sees you. There are a few books about us you know."_

" _Yeah. I've got it. It can't possibly be painless, you know. The kid's never launched a single electric attack yet. She's too young."_

" _Thunderwave"_

" _Doesn't do damage"_ she shot back, building a glowing sphere in her palms. The smell of ozone began to permeate the air, much stronger.

" _It's still electricity"_

" _Not enough to matter. Now shut up. I'm the electric girl. You're the one who sits there and tries to pretend that Darkness hasn't any idea what you're doing."_ she wrapped up the conversation. The silent energy in her palms coalesced into a crystal. Crystallized lightning; such a thing should not be physically possible. It was more than the gems found in some caves in varying regions, which only contained the element.

The girl stood. Even being easily missed by the eyes of others would do little if the pichu could detect the energy. So, without further ado, the girl disappeared in a flash of lightning, arcing the energy released from her crystal straight towards the group.

Yellow heard the sound of the blast, whipping her head to the above cliff. There was an image in the blinding light that looked vaguely human before the blast obscured the image. Nobody, not even Riley had time to avoid the incredibly quick blast. It was not like pokemon lightning with it's slower speed, it was an actual lightning bolt out of nowhere.

And a loud scream issued in the air as everybody was tossed back by the explosion. Riley rolled quickly and twisted to skid to a stop on his feet, snagging Amber out of the air in the process and making sure she was uninjured. She seemed fine. In fact, Riley seemed fine. It was like the blast had not been intended for anything other than push them away… but who screamed?

Yellow tumbled to a stop, yelping because of her knee protesting the movements, but even then it was like the blast had been perfectly aimed so that her left leg did not wind up touching anything at all. What kind of luck was that? or was it good aim? Why was she unharmed?

Yellow did not know the answer, but she did detect the frantic thoughts of the last. Pain. Fear. Yellow tried to scramble up, but collapsed. She was not ready to move around yet. Thankfully, Riley darted in towards the crater and grabbed the pichu within. She was the only one injured. She was apparently the target.

"Scarlet!" Riley exclaimed, jumping away from the blast zone. He pored over the burns on her. "What the fuck happened?" he asked, angry "That was actual lightning. She's burned all over!" The pichu was clearly unconscious, but Yellow was picking up the slow thoughts and mental images of dreams when she focused.

"Give me to her, Riley!" Yellow snapped "I can heal her!"

Riley rushed over to Yellow, allowing the girl to gather the pichu in her arms. Her hands glowed a brilliant yellow glow, shining and obscuring the burned pokemon, and Riley tried to see through it to see how Scarlet was doing.

The glow slowly faded to the point when it was clearly there, yet could easily be seen through. The pichu was doing well, most of her burns gone. Yellow sighed in relief as she healed the little girl. The burns were disappearing slowly, and Yellow began to give Riley the rundown. "She's going to be fine. She might be a little scared when she wakes. She'll need you to soothe her."

"I can do that." Riley replied immediately "but I need to find our attacker. Call me if she starts to wake up." Yellow nodded, willing to obey that particular order. The rest of them had not been injured in the slightest save for the tumble they experienced. Somebody had been aiming for Scarlet.

Riley leapt up the cliff in a few jumps. He scanned the area above. No sign of anybody. Not even any footprints existed. "Not a thing." he called down to Yellow, annoyance clear in his voice. "Why the fuck would they attack Scarlet? She doesn't have any proper enemies. Nobody would want to hurt her. Nobody's enemies with her. Nobody has a clue that she is even any different from the others."

Riley leaped down easily, returning to Yellow, who finished the overhaul of Scarlet's injuries as Amber got off of Riley's shoulder (where she had remained weirdly quiet) and padded over to Yellow, limping a bit. The girl noticed the scratched up leg where she had tumbled along the ground.

"I'll get that for you." she offered kindly, giving Riley Scarlet, who fussed over her and checked for any remaining injuries. Yellow gingerly took Amber's paw in gentle palms and let the glow wash over the eevee's wounds. the scratches in her legs began to close, dirt embedded in the wounds being removed before they closed completely. Amber was in good health in ten seconds.

"Thanks" Amber smiled cutely at Yellow, who nodded. The girl had long since understood that the 'adorable little eevee' was no saint whatsoever, but she was still cute. Yellow ruffled the fur on her head and turned back to Riley without moving her right leg or putting weight on it.

"Her ribbon was obliterated." Riley muttered, holding Scarlet as calmly as he could. "I am going to take whoever that person was apart."

"It wasn't a pokemon." Yellow suddenly started in realization. Catching the eyes of the others, who had all turned to her, she began to explain. "The only thoughts I could hear were those of the pokemon we had with us. I can't read a human's mind and there were no thoughts at all. I saw the silhouette of something though, so something was attacking us."

Riley frowned. "Humans don't have that kind of power. **I** don't have that kind of power. It was proper lightning too, just as fast. Scarlet only survived because she was an electric type." He refuted, absently rubbing Scarlet's now ribbonless ear, showing off the three spikes at the tip of it. She would sleep for quite a while.

Amber raised a paw from where she sat next to Yellow. "Uh, remember the freaky human girl I told you about that told me that it would be best to hang around you?" she asked.

Riley nodded. "Yeah?"

"I would have run, but she somehow controlled the grass under me like a grass knot attack, and called herself something. The guardian of life?" Amber recalled. Yellow stared at her, feeling the eevee recall the incident.

"I'll look her up." Yellow decided. A human that could control elements like that… it was unheard of. Even Riley needed his staff to redirect attacks, regardless of how powerful that staff was in that regard, it was still a weapon that could be removed, and he would simply be a strong human afterwards.

So whoever these guardians were, that one was probably trustworthy, but if this new one was also a guardian… that could spell trouble. Especially if she had some sort of reason to attack Scarlet.

Of course, there could be several other reasonable explanations. Humans, besides this one example of a person that Amber describes, have not shown any ability to naturally manipulate elements on their own. Perhaps the pokemon was a great distance away… and somehow managed to fire off actual lightning, in other words, plasma.

Yellow knew that they could continue travelling, and because being picked up in a ground vehichle was impossible here, and the situation did not warrant a helicopter extraction, they would continue to travel by foot. She could limp a ways until she healed. She was certain.

"Riley, I don't think we can find anything else here." Yellow ventured. Riley responded by kicking a rock out of his way.

"I know. I hate it." he snarled. He was very protective of the pokemon he was keeping an eye on. He was dedicated to them, actually. That Scarlet got hurt was a personal failure to him. "Yellow, how can I possibly protect people if I can't stop a single attack from hurting Scarlet?" he demanded, striding up to the girl. Yellow did not know what to say as Riley helped her up and let her balance on his shoulder again.

"Mistakes… Well, mistakes can happen." she murmured.

"No. No, they don't just happen." he replied stiffly, keeping a hold on Scarlet. " **I** don't just make mistakes. **I** am supposed to be their protector, and mistakes are unacceptable. Scarlet's life was in **danger** , Yellow."

Yellow stayed silent after that. Not only was he acknowledging his failure, he was beating himself up about it. He was going too far, and yet any consolation that Yellow might give now would seem paltry and false, undercooked, to find an applicable term. Yellow hated not being able to make him feel better.

Amber hated it as well. He seemed to beat himself up so easily. He did just that after being beaten by that Zach asshole, and when he did go into that stiff gloom, he could only bring himself back up. Nobody knew how to properly fix these moods yet.

Riley vowed to train more and have better reaction time, or at least be more aware. he would always keep an eye on the area above him if one is present. Cliffs were evidently not to be trusted. He leaned his head downwards towards the pokemon in his arms. "You'll be alright. Yellow did what I couldn't…" he promised the unconscious pichu, who could not hear him.

Needless to say, there was no banter or teasing for a while. All three awake beings kept a very close eye on the cliff above, suspicion evident in their eyes. Hobbling along was slow, but hours later, the group met up with the second, thankfully shorter point where the lava rocks had made an obstacle of the road.

Yellow kept to one foot and leaned heavily on Riley, glad that the boy was both willing and capable of handling her weight. She had noticed that she was getting heavier, but not exactly around her stomach. She was in good physical condition, but growing up was beginning to become a hindrance.

being a late bloomer sucked, though she was glad that she had eventually grown enough that their little eevee friend with a habit of teasing couldn't begin to call her flat-chested. She sensed that had anybody ever brought that up to her before, she might feel self conscious.

" _Why the hell am I contemplating my chest size at a time like this!?"_ Yellow screamed in her head at herself, cross that that was on her mind right after **Scarlet** of all people had been so promptly attacked. No known enemies, especially not around cerulean, on the other side of a mountain. There was literally no reason to attack her considering her past or her present state.

" _So why do it? If it had been a miss, the rest of us would have been hurt, but the fact that everyone is in perfect condition after a freaking lightning blast, a legitimate bolt of plasma. No, everyone, even the pokemon on my belt, are completely unharmed. Such perfect aim to only hit Scarlet and push everyone else back in a burst of dust. Minimal damage to us."_

Yellow's ponderings continued, but she arrived at no conclusion at all. Whoever it was made a master with a sniper rifle look like a freaking rookie, with a bolt of **lightning** , no less. One of the most randomly flying attacks.

The girl focused on walking along the basalt without crisis, attempting to cause as little a hinderance as physically possible, making sure not to overuse her knee. Tomorrow she would probably have to change the bandage, but it was unlikely to have gotten infected after Riley had followed directions to the letter, or rather to Yellow's instructions, which were to the letter.

Scarlet only began to wake up a few hours later, after they had cleared the lava rock. The group all gave a smile to her as she groaned and opened her eyes very slowly. Scarlet was uncertain what had happened, but she remembered pain after smelling a thunderstorm on a cloudless day.

"Wh…" Scarlet began, and stopped. She took the moment to overview her injuries; Zero. She felt perfectly fine. She felt at her limbs, belly, ears… No ribbon. Whatever had done that had torn her ribbon apart. "What happened?" she finally inquired.

Riley frowned. "You were attacked out of the blue by something firing a lightning bolt, and I was not fast enough to block it." he stated "It was a true lightning bolt, and far faster than I could hope to move."

"...Oh." Scarlet murmured, not sure what to think of that. She still felt tired, though she was no longer injured in the slightest. She flicked her ears as she heard Riley sighing to himself and feeling him keep her closer than normal. He had obviously been very worried about her.

"...I'm sorry…" Scarlet apologized.

"Don't be. It was my mistake, not paying attention." Riley stated sternly. He would not dare let anyone else take the blame for him. Amber and Yellow sighed in unison, a sound which Riley pointedly ignored.

The group was able to travel for a small while later before they reached the forest entrance and decided to rest for the day and night. Yellow needed to rest. "Maybe you'll feel better in the morning" Riley told her "So get some rest. Uh… Where is the cooking stuff? Should I make somethi-"

"I'm fine!" Yellow got to her feet, ignoring the incredible amount of pain she received in response. Lesson one of travelling anywhere: Do. Not. Let. Riley. Cook.

Riley stared at her. "Weren't you hurt?" he asked, flabbergasted.

"I am, but you are **not** cooking anything." she stated, and then swayed. Riley leapt to catch her as she lost her footing as she experienced incredible pain. She was nearly crying from attempting that.

"You rest." Riley ordered "We're going to have some of our food that doesn't need to be cooked. We have pistachios, which contain protein, and dried fruit, and if we wanted to break into the muffins, we do have plenty for tomorrow's breakfast as well as this."

Yellow smiled at the boy. "Your decision making is improving, at least." she complimented. She earned a grin in return, but no words. It occurred to her how uncomfortable he must be knowing that Yellow had to go back to what she was doing in a short while, and then he would be on his own.

Yellow was starting to feel uncomfortable about it as well. She nodded, and Riley began to get out the food for dinner, as the sun was setting and it was just about dinnertime. Amber and the rest of the pokemon got their share of pokemon food, and Riley brought out the large muffins, the bag of pistachios, and some dried fruit.

Yellow moved to start setting up her tent, but Riley stopped her before she could move and shoved a chocolate muffin into her hands. He shook his head. "You aren't going anywhere with that leg. I'll set it up."

"..Do you even know how to set up a tent?" Yellow asked.

"Nope. If I can't…. There's not going to be any rain tonight, at least, most likely." he replied casually, popping a pistachio in his mouth and then grabbing a poppy seed muffin to eat. Yellow obediently stopped moving and tuned into the thoughts of the pokemon to see how they were managing. Her own pokemon were trying not to appear as if they were fussing over her hurt leg.

"I'll be fine, guys." she called out to them, making the lot of them jump in surprise. Sometimes even they forgot she could do that, which was odd, considering how many years they had spent together as comrades in battle.

"Amber, pretty sure that muffins are bad for eevees." Riley picked Amber up and moved her away from his food and set her down back where her pokemon food sat in it's bowl, letting her grumble about not being able to sneak a bite and grudgingly ate her food.

"Are they-"

"Probably bad for pichus. Probably, Scarlet." Riley interrupted the pichu, who frowned and crossed her arms in a manner that she had seen Riley do once. He grinned at her as she flicked the ear with the spikes.

"You are terrible at looking serious." Riley informed the little girl, who dropped the act. She went to finish her food too. pichus are too cute to look serious like that.

Riley made sure Scarlet stayed close. "Somebody seems to be after you for no apparent reason" was his reasoning, and the others saw it as valid. He kept his staff at the ready and constantly did three-sixties to check on the surroundings as he did things like eat and such. If something was sneaking up on them, they would know about it.

But nothing did. Eventually, there were complaints about boredom. Eventually, sleep found the group. In for an early night, they all slept quite well besides Riley, who decided to stay up most of the night. Yellow had ordered him to go to sleep in a few hours and wake her up, and he had grudgingly agreed.

But nothing happened overnight, and despite Riley having given Yellow an extra hour of sleep, he felt quite rested. Amber had been snuggled up in his arms all night anyhow. Yellow tried to stand and found that while her leg complained quite a bit, she could move around pretty well.

"I've got it this morning." She announced "let me cook a proper breakfast."

"Go for it." Riley nodded, waving his hand in a 'go ahead' gesture. He wanted to get a little more sleep, despite having as much energy as he needed for the day. Amber was content to curl up in his arms again.

"Go team…" Yellow muttered quietly as she brought out her equipment for cooking a decent meal. Eggs and bacon with tortillas for breakfast burritos. Ten minutes later, two burritos for each of them. She rattled the pokemon food bowls to wake the pokemon up in moments, waking Riley up in the process as Amber bounded away from him.

"Claws to the chest. Fun." Riley commented as he sat up "having a silver shirt, that's the key to surviving keeping Amber in check." This elicited a short laugh from Yellow and an indignant "Hey!" from Amber.

They all chuckled, and Yellow brought over the food on plates. "Riley, just… do as I do." she instructed, showing him how to eat a burrito properly without spilling the contents and taking a large bite. Riley followed suit, casually at first and then happily as he tasted it.

"These eggs were not fertilized, don'it worry." Yellow assured him before he had a sudden spit take. He paused, having not thought of it, and then nodded. Eggs were also available as the typical egg. Eggs that are not fertilized do not show the marks of a fertilized pokemon egg and are smaller.

"I reckoned you wouldn't do something like that." he replied, scarfing down the rest of his food. Yellow worried the boy was going to choke to death on his food someday without her supervision. The girl hid her frown in her own food. He could handle himself, right? Theoretically?

After breakfast, the group set off. Yellow started limping after a while, and refused to accept Riley's offer of supporting her weight again. She needed to be able to hold herself up.

The group walked for many hours. Forest dominated the area as the cliffs fell away from sight and the lava fields alongside the road petered off until only the occasional chunk of basalt or pumice The forest before Cerulean was a nice one, flashing as the sun reflected off of numerous dewdrops, giving the appearance of being surrounded by glimmering emeralds.

The emerald forest. Nice place, albeit small. They walked until they came across something they had not seen for ages: a pokemon trainer. He had blond hair, and looked rather… thin. His face turned into a sneer as he saw the pair, fingering the single pokeball on his belt. Riley and Yellow tensed instantly, for different reasons.

Riley because he was already full of adrenaline and he could burst into combat mode at any point, but Yellow had a much worse reaction. " _Please, no. Don't make me fight again."_ She heard in her mind, the thought originating from the pokeball.

"Hey, You've got pokemon." he said, as if just realizing that there was an eevee and pichu visible. "Heh. I don't think you can beat me and my pokemon." he continued "Let's say… double or nothing. Beat my absol, and you get twice the prize money. I beat you, I get double. Fair?"

Yellow leaned in towards Riley. "His pokemon doesn't want to fight. In fact, I think she is afraid of her trainer." she informed him. The boy tensed, his staff absently spinning between his fingers at his side.

"Amber, Scarlet, please step aside." he suddenly spoke, and the two, sensing his mood, clambered off and moved behind Yellow. He got into a fighting stance and nodded. "You will not be battling the ones I am to care for. You will be fighting me instead."

Yellow stepped back at that que, and the rich kid looked confused. "This is a pokemon battle. Send in your eevee or something." he protested. Riley growled animalistically, crouching lower.

"I was raised by pokemon. I think that qualifies me." he responded slowly. The boy looked very unsure of himself, and Riley felt a surge of anger. "You are willing to put pokemon in a position to be hurt, but you won't hurt a human? Ridiculous." he insulted the boy.

Now, rich people are not used to being insulted so boldly. Said boy grew angry immediately. "Fine. See if you can handle Absol." he responded in frustration, opening the pokeball to reveal a female absol. She was somewhat smaller than most absol, and looked very afraid.

Riley walked forward, and to the rich kid's confusion, got on one knee in front of her, putting the two on a nearly equal level. "Hello." he greeted her calmly "What is your name?"

Hesitation. "A-Absol?"

"No, not the name your dull human gave you. Your real name. The one your parents gave you before you were yanked away from that life." he clarified, soothing the absol. The rich kid looked on in shock. What the heck did this guy think he was doing?

"Absol, return." he said, firing the red beam at the absol to absorb her back into the pokeball. If the red haired boy was not going to be serious, he was not going to waste his time. However, the absol did not return. The boy had placed his staff in front of the beam, blocking it.

"Please answer me." he asked of the female absol, who was looking at the boy in confusion. She was clearly shy.

"K-Kurenai…" she murmured, wondering if the boy actually understood her. He seemed to, nodding.

"Nice to meet you Kurenai. Please… How does this boy treat you?" he inquired, absently blocking the next few beams from the pokeball. Kurenai shuddered, but did not answer, causing the orange haired boy to frown and run his hand through her fur. he felt scars along her body. Some subtle, some more prominent.

"These scars… They are not wounds made by claws, teeth, or any other pokemon attack. These are… I don't know what they are." Riley said truthfully. Yellow caught the thought in Kurenai's mind, and instantly was ready to pound this kid into the ground herself.

" _What kind of sick logic... "_ she thought, enraged. She had not seen a trainer like this for years. Trainers willing to hurt their pokemon to make them submissive are unfortunately common, but to see **this** … "A whip. That is the weapon used by their family." she snarled, and the boy stepped back now, likely recalling the sessions in the training field near his father's manor.

Riley continued moving his hands along Kurenai's body. Most of the scars looked like they had done a lot of damage. His eyes shadowed. A aura promising destruction emanated from him. "I am so sorry that this monster hurt you…" he whispered to her, and slowly stood up.

Yellow was too angry to care much about the fact that this kid might be in danger. Riley rose up slowly, his staff twirling absently in his hand. The boy took a step back, but Riley blurred forward. He had the boy by the collar, holding him a foot in the air against a tree.

"What are you doing!?" he cried out, fear filling his eyes.

"You tortured this pokemon." he growled "Forced it to submit to you." His eyes were still overshadowed. The rich kid feared for his life then. This kid had said something about being raised by pokemon… He would be protective of them.

"T-they're just animals!" he protested. The boy had been brought up to believe such. He was young as well, and his knowledge of pokemon was limited. He did not know what pokemon were, not really. He gulped as Riley slammed him against the tree again after he yelped in pain.

"Pokemon are sentient creatures. Don't you know that!?" Riley roared at the boy, who froze. Before he could say a word of denial, Riley continued. "They feel emotion, and live their lives, and stupid, cruel humans like **you** take them from their homes and beat them into submission! Abusive, destructive, and pathetic! Every one of you!"

Yellow got ahold of herself. "Riley, don't hurt him. There is a better way to deal with this." she ordered. The redhead, still enraged, whipped his head over to her.

"What?"

"Find a way to deal with this that doesn't involved injuring him… too badly." she told him.

Riley froze for a while, contemplating. The rich kid hoped that he followed the advice and didn't hurt him. Finally, Riley made his decision and turned back to the boy slowly. "You... " he started slowly, furious, "you will release Kurenai."

"W-what!?" he cried out, shocked. No way could he give up what made him a trainer!

"And you will do it right now."

"I-I can't!" he replied, but Riley slammed him against the tree. Twice. The rich kid flinched from the pain and started to sweat as Riley growled animalistically at him.

"Release. The. Absol."

"Or what?" the blonde replied snarkily, trying in vain to hide his fear "You can't do anything to me."

Riley pushed him harder against the tree. "Do I look like someone who caves to the rules of humans?" he snarled, making the kid think he was a pokemon in disguise or something "You do not quite understand what kind of situation you are in. Should I explain it in a way I prefer to do?" he continued, clenching his fist in front of the boy.

The threat was not lost on him. He gulped again. "I…" he began, but then closed his mouth. He had never known that pokemon were sentient, and still wanted to deny it, but this redhead… He was going to hurt him.

"P-please don't make me…" he whimpered. Yellow stepped forward.

"A full investigation will be made of the cruelty you and your family has committed towards the pokemon in your possession on my orders." the girl told him, showing her badge "It would be better for your family if there was one less piece of evidence of this, and Kurenai will be free of the tyranny you and your family inflicted on her."

The blonde knew he had no choice. The psycho redhead guy would keep hurting him if he didn't, and the girl was threatening to bring the police down on them for it, showing her badge to tell him that she herself was a part of that force.

And she was going to do it anyways, but he and his family would be in less trouble if he released Absol-... Kurenai, apparently. He shakily held the ball and spoke as he pressed the button. "I-I release you, Absol." he whispered. A thin blue beam focused on Kurenai, and the blue aura flickered around her form before breaking away. The absol was free.

Riley dropped the kid, and Yellow gently pushed the scowling redhead away. "Listen." she told the blond boy "It would be best if you came back to Cerulean with us. We can't leave you without a pokemon in the woods, though leaving Kurenai with you would have been unacceptable, which you should understand someday. Can you tell us where you live?"

The boy looked rather shell shocked, but he gave the two others a whisper of "Vermillion". He knew why his pokemon had been taken. He looked at the female absol, who was hiding behind Riley now. "...Are you really, you know… Intelligent?" he asked hesitantly. He received a nod immediately, something he had never seen.

Riley snarled animalistically, but Yellow held him back. "He was brought up to believe that pokemon are just animals that can be treated however. He is a terrible person, but he can learn." she reminded him, pushing him back.

"Why did… Why did you never try to tell us?" the rich boy asked. She responded to him, though he only heard a series of syllables relating to the word 'absol'. He couldn't understand her.

"She says she tried." Riley growled "but you humans didn't listen to her."

"She remembers whimpering out questions such as 'why?' and 'what did I do?' along with begging you to stop." Yellow supplied harshly. The boy who could understand their speech and the girl who could hear their thoughts. As the rich kid stared at who used to be his pokemon, he experienced a sort of realization that he had been involved in and slash or allowed the beating and whipping of a creature who was apparently just as sentient as any human.

"Give us your name." Yellow ordered. He flinched and answered quietly.

"Matt… Matt Mavis." he murmured.

"Well, Mr. Mavis. We will get to Cerulean quickly. We will travel together so that you have some form of protection from wild pokemon, but there is a half hour walk before we get to cerulean." Yellow continued immediately "and we can then get you back home, where the investigation will continue."

The two of the received a not. Matt was silent as a grave for the next five minutes while the others worked things out. Riley slowly approached Kurenai, who instinctively moved away from him. He kneeled down to be on her level again. "Kurenai, you're free." he told her "but what are you going to do?"

The absol hesitated. "I… I don't know how to survive on my own… I just, well, I was born and raised with this family. I don't know how to survive in the wild…"

Riley hummed in thought. "I really hesitate to say this, because of what this asshole and his family has done to you, but… You could stick around us until we find something that we can do to make your life easy and happy."

Yellow cheered the boy on in her mind. His idea had helped the shy absol perk up a bit. She looked at him in shock. He was going to care for her? Kurenai's mind raced at the idea that someone who was rescuing her was willing to keep helping her… "You… You will let me stay with you? You won't make me try and live on my own?"

Riley ruffled her fur, already amused and attached to the absol. "Of course not!" he exclaimed "If you wanted to stick around us, we would be glad to help you. **I** would be glad to help you, Kurenai."

There was a pause, and then… "Thank you!" Kurenai squealed, tackling Riley and toppling the surprised boy. He laughed as the absol licked his face repeatedly in happiness. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

Matt looked on in astonishment. The boy who could speak pokemon had made his… Who used to be his absol happier than she had ever been in about twenty seconds. Even only having one half of the conversation available to him, he understood that for once, his absol was happy. Winning was what mattered, as he had been taught, but the scene was… heartwarming.

That was an unusual term for him.

"Kurenai, I know for a fact that pokeballs cannot capture a captured pokemon. If you were to be captured, and the ball was hidden away where no one could find it, you would be permanently free. That is the only reason I have pokeballs on my belt, after all." Riley told her. She looked at him questioningly, still on top of him.

"You would only have to go into a pokeball once more, ever!" Amber supplied, as she was now right next to Kurenai, who was startled by her appearance.

"R-really?" the girl asked, looking apprehensively at Amber. Not apprehensive… Just startled. Riley waited for her to get off of him, but she gave him a friendly nuzzle and started thanking him profusely again. And licking him like any excited canine type pokemon would. Even if the absol has more of a feline face.

After Riley managed to get the extremely happy absol off of him, he slowly went for a pokeball. Kurenai beat him to it, tapping the button with her snout to be caught in seconds. Riley and Matt both stared at the pokeball in silence for a bit, while Yellow had heard it coming in her mind.

"...Okay." Riley finally nodded, and sent the absol out of her pokeball before putting the ball deep into his pack. "I guess that means you are coming with us, then."

The group then began to get ready to go. Riley pulled Yellow aside quickly, setting Amber and Scarlet to tell Kurenai everything about the adventure so far. "Yellow, you were able to remove Amber's scars… Could you heal Kurenai so thoroughly?" he asked quietly.

"We have to wait for that." she hissed back "If this family of Matt's decide to make this a court case, we need those old scars as evidence and her pokeball, so you can't send that to Oak just yet. You need to safeguard it, and after we are certain that everything with that family is resolved and the right people are punished, **then** we can heal the scars. Otherwise, them going to court might be much more difficult, and they may even be allowed to continue what they are doing if they are not found guilty."

Riley thought about it. These people needed to be punished, and any pokemon needed to be protected from their grasp. He understood. "I get that, but I feel as though we should at least tell her that when this is all over we can help her be rid of those scars."

"There's no reason not to." Yellow agreed "But let's have that conversation away from Matt."

"Or wait until we have sent him home." Riley nodded.

The two moved back to the group, where Kurenai was stuttering as she tried to talk to Amber and Scarlet. She was quite shy… Maybe a result of being forced into submission all of her life?

"Alright. Let's get moving." Riley called, catching everyone's attention "Slowpoke here" he gestured towards Matt "Can't run at the speeds that I can or Dody can. That means we'll be walking. That in turn apparently means that we have half of an hour before we get to Cerulean, at which our first order of operations is to get Matt back home, which means a quick trip to Vermillion before we handle whatever shenanigans await us in Cerulean. Everybody got that?"

"Nice." Yellow complimented as she passed by him "You're learning." She received a nod from the boy, who then gestured towards the others and pointed down the road, before moving to pick Amber and Scarlet up and put them on his shoulders.

"...You're a bit big to carry around." Riley noticed, looking at Kurenai. The absol was bigger than Amber and Scarlet, and carrying her around would be… Odd."

"I-I can walk." Kurenai assured him, moving to stand to his size while nuzzling his leg. He nodded and checked on the others. After ensuring that everyone was ready, they group set out again. Yellow made certain to stay directly between Riley and Matt, so as to avoid incident. Riley wondered why she was protecting him. He took part in and possibly enjoyed hurting Kurenai, who was content to stay to his right at all times now.

Eventually, he decided to pull her aside again. "Yellow." he hissed "I would like nothing less than to beat him into the ground. Why is it you are trying to keep him safe?"

While the others watched them talk, even though nobody but Riley, Yellow, and Amber knew what was being said, as Scarlet had jumped off to try and make friends with Kurenai again, Yellow told him exactly what was happening. "If we hurt him too bad, he can claim that we beat him up to make him release Kurenai rather than inform him of the higher chance of legal action if he did not." she whispered back "I know you know little of politics and the law, even after reading that stuff, but there are a **lot** of things that can be used against us. We don't have to be nice, but we can't do what we want to do to him for what he has been involved in."

Riley let it by, figuring that Yellow knew what she was talking about, but still huffed in annoyance. The kid was apparently untouchable now. Yellow put a hand on his shoulder. "Believe me. I understand. I **get** it. I want to pound him into the ground too, but we **can't**."

"...Fine."

The group moved on, Riley making small talk with Yellow and Kurenai, Amber chiming in at times. Scarlet occasionally spoke up as well, but she had found that talking to Kurenai resulted in stuttering, as the fellow girl did not really know how to deal with strangers. Shy and unsure of herself, she was hesitant to talk. Except that she really liked Riley, having identified him as the one to have saved her.

And apparently she had gained a habit of tackling him and licking his face repeatedly, as everybody discovered again when he had started going on about his life and what he was to do, avoiding talking about his time in the hidden land, and basically explained how the whole point of his travels were to keep an eye out for pokemon trainers to abuse and mistreat pokemon and help those pokemon lead better lives.

Riley was glad that his shirt was that silver metal lace. Otherwise Kurenai would have accidentally gutted him with her claws as she jumped on him again. He couldn't bring himself to avoid it either.

Eventually, Riley coaxed the happy absol off of his face and chest, and the group continued. Cerulean stood beneath the cliff they stood on, spreading out a great distance, and further away and to the left, the water sparkled in the afternoon sun. What marred the image was the police tape around the viewing point.

"Welcome to Cerulean…" Yellow muttered, nearing the police tape which surrounded the area. There was no bodies any longer, but the place was still quarantined so as to avoid remaining evidence being tampered with. Dried blood was still visible on the dirt.

Matt stepped back. "What **is** that?" he asked. Yellow turned to the boy.

"You didn't see it on your way to us?"

"n-no… I took a different path that I was told trainers tended to use to more easily get up the cliffs that block the way to Cerulean. The main road is a bit steeper than it, so…" he responded, finding himself looking at Kurenai. he had made the absol fight two other trainers, three pokemon total. Those trainers had not caused him such trouble as these two had, though they hadn't known how he treated her.

Kurenai misunderstood his look and stepped back, catching Riley's attention. He made sure he was between the two of them, but knowing Yellow's reasoning, did not cause trouble. "Apparently, a few mornings ago, three people were found here, killed by somebody. Was that right, Yellow?"

"Yes." she responded "Most likely human weapons, and two different methods of killing. The investigators never found a thing. They are still working on it, but after this long they haven't found a single lead at all."

"What a heartwarming welcome." Riley muttered.

"Was that sarcasm?" Kurenai asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Kurenai. Yes it was."

"C'mon." Yellow interrupted, walking along the path again "We have a lot to do."

* * *

 **Hahahah! You lot thought Mt. Moon was going to be a problem! Got you!**

 **Jango: You are learning well.**

 **Me: Shut up, Jango. The truth is that while I wanted to have something exciting to happen in the mountain, the way I had set up the storyline in this world would say otherwise, as workers worked to make the cave safe and easy to traverse. Don't you wish they had done THAT before the storylines of pokemon red, blue, yellow, leaf green and fire red?**

 **As for the rest of the chapter... Mysterious bad guy, injuries, mistakes, Police investigations, seemingly random attacks on a complete innocent, and saving a pokemon from abuse...**

 **Really now, how many of you thought that this story would escape without having an absol character? This is ME we're talking about. Of COURSE there is going to be an absol character or a few. No story of mine escapes without at least one absol character, or if the genre is not pokemon, at least a reference to it in some manner.**

 **Poor Scarlet and Kurenai right? Apparently random attacks on the innocent little pichu as well as the destruction of her ribbon (for the moment) and the first real shown example of pokemon abuse, forcing a pokemon into absolute submission with a whip. Nothing to laugh at, but things have to be serious.**

 **Admittedly, this chapter lacked in amusing shenanigans, but this story is intended to have funny... and serious elements. This is not the happy world of TAC, as that was prior to the shenanigans of the PMD games and TAC.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I will see you all next time, either in TAC2 or New Age. Have fun, readers. Good day.**

 **-Hyperjade**


	11. Chapter Eleven: The Shadow

**Hello one and all, to New Age: World of Pokemon! Chapter eleven here. Uploaded at a similar time to the latest TAC chapter because I got carried away writing. Again, tried to make the chapter shorter than they usually are as of late. To no avail. I am bad at making short chapters, and I need to be better.**

 **Review time! Haha! I knew somebody would think that Mount Moon was going to result in disaster, but there's a whole 'nother danger around the corner, as the last chapter alluded to!**

 **Thank you, Phillip Harbindinger.**

 **Raven, this chapter should prove to be a bit more humorous in some places. Some.**

 **And finally, I appreciate the review greatly, ZLAXE, as I appreciate all the others. Kurenai was the name of one of the female ninja in Naruto, I think. Can't remember which one. Yes, this chapter was filled with all the shenanigans.**

 **At any rate, let's get on with the chapter right away!**

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven: The Shadow**

Cerulean City. Towering above the heads of the large group, the city loomed with unique buildings all around and multiple aquariums available. They loved the water here, it seemed. Neighborhoods along the hills around the main city had public pools and private pools.

Zoom in a bit, and we find the group of three humans and their pokemon companions speaking with each other. At least, Yellow and Riley were speaking. Matt was at the bench nearby, eyes invisible under the shadows. He was thinking. A lot.

Kurenai had stayed a certain distance from him, but occasionally drew the boy's attention where she sat. Occasionally, he would ask her a yes or no question. On those occasions, she would answer with a nod or a shake of her head. Every single question told Matt that his absol had been far more than a typical animal. Every single question brought him down more.

But it was far too late to apologize. Maybe he could do something about his own life, but he couldn't control his father or his family. He knew this. he was going to obey these two humans, because he knew that they had the control here. Without such a shocking moment of all these revelations, the boy would be quite angry with his predicament. However, he bore a resigned look, if a little thoughtful.

Yellow was discussing the plan with Riley. Rather, because she knew what she was doing, she was explaining the plan to the boy, who was more than willing to cooperate. Particularly after knowing how to deal with this whole 'court' thing. Whatever it was, it didn't involve smacking people around if they deserved it.

"Alright. Let's go over this again. You are going to practice for the next few days to handle things on your own. You have a fund in your account as you are a member of the police. Do you remember how to access that account?"

"I think so. Password, login." Riley replied "and I can access it at computers in a hotel and then directly transfer money over to the account of the hotel, or whatever."

"That will have to be good enough, as long as one of you remember it." Yellow nodded "And what is your job while you stay in Cerulean while I get this kid home and deal with all of that?"

"You want me to visit the library" Riley held up a piece of—wait for it—yellow paper, with a list of books and certain keywords to search "And apparetly sit and read for hours about various things. You know I don't do well sitting still, right?"

"You're going to have to learn how."

Riley huffed. "Yeah, I know. I'd just prefer to be running about. Can I at least move around the city the way I normally would?"

"It'll be incredibly obvious with you hopping from building to building and such."

"I'll go mad if I can't at least move quickly."

Yellow's turn to huff. "Fine. Just don't get yourself killed. You **are** being targeted by a mercenary with weapons of the same metal as your staff, if I must remind you."

"and If I find myself losing, for god's sake, run." Riley recited, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, this guardian of life is on the top of your searching list, and you want me to double check some random stuff I've never heard of, and at the bottom are a few books you just **have** to read…"

"Consider that my reward for letting you off without having to deal with court, or official things." Yellow retorted soon after he made that last remark.

"Off you get, then." Riley waved his hand "I've got this. Probably."

Yellow frowned. "That phrasing is not reassuring."

"Whatever. And you are going to take this bugger across the region with fast transport, whatever you meant by that, and are going to basically set the police on them for consistent pokemon abuse." Riley clarified.

"Yeah." Yellow smiled "I've got this. Probably."

Riley laughed at her. "are we splitting off right now?"

"yeah. See you in a few days, minimum. If everything goes well."

"Hey, you're leaving your bad luck charm, AKA me, behind. You'll survive."

"You are **not** a bad luck charm."

"...You're right. That's Amber."

The two humans laughed while Amber smacked Riley in the face for his little joke, and shot Yellow a glare for joining in on the laughter. "Yeah, fine. Go have fun in the boring courtroom, and try not to trip and tear your knee open again." she told Yellow.

Yellow nodded, and made a call while Riley, Amber, Scarlet, and Kurenai started to walk off. Kurenai gave Matt a last look over her shoulder. She was uncertain of what to make of the boy; he had been so harshly affected by what happened. "Riley, could you hang on? Please?" Kurenai asked of the boy, who stopped instantly.

Riley knew what she was doing without turning around. He did not need to look to know that Kurenai was approaching Matt again. He did not need to hear to know that Kurenai was telling him that she thought he could do better. He didn't need the ability to understand humans to know that Matt did not truly understand her words, but got the idea that there was some degree of hope. He did not need to pay attention to know that an entire, strangely accepting scene was going on behind him. He did not know what was redeemable about the boy, but he knew that Kurenai seemed to see something. Maybe the danger he was giving off that Kurenai would be able to sense had lessened a lot, in more than one way.

"...I wish I could understand you." Matt whispered back "If I had been able to understand pokemon from the start, would I be like these two?"

"Maybe." Kurenai answered uncertainly, and then she rejoined Riley, at his side.

Riley was still for a moment. "No, you would not have been like me or Yellow." he responded without turning back "Yellow has the ability to heal, and reads their thoughts. I hear their words in my own language. Were you like either of us, you still lived where harming pokemon was acceptable. You would not be like us. Better, maybe, than you used to be, but not like us."

Riley then looked to Kurenai. "Can you keep up with me if I run?"

"Uh… Until we hit the bigger crowds, maybe, but then I would fall behind real quick." she responded.

Riley leaped, rebounding off of a wall, and now stood on top of the nearby lightpost, the action making Matt's eyes go wide, as well as Kurenai's. "Then we will go." he said, and started leaping forward, bar to bar, above the people walking by.

Matt watched Kurenai chase after the really weird redhead, before turning to Yellow. "You called for a ride?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Okay."

* * *

Riley found that the amount of people walking along the sidewalks was increasing as he bounded through the city, sometimes hopping on lightposts, sometimes running on the wall for a moment to catch a ledge, and generally finding places to put his foot to continue.

The people below him pointed and shouted in surprise, before being forced to clear the way for the absol barreling down the sidewalk after the boy.

"Mommy, why is that pokemon chasing the flying boy?"

"I don't know sweetie- stay back, that's an absol there."

"Is the absol trying to attack him?"

"Good luck to it. Absols can't fly unless they mega evolve."

"What's mega evolution?"

"Well-"

Riley stopped paying attention to the conversation, instead realizing that Kurenai would soon have to stop for the large amount of people. Thus, he skipped off of a lightpost, did a triple front flip (for style points, obviously) and landed smoothly on the ground. Kurenai took a few moments to catch up with him.

Riley rubbed her head. "You're pretty fast' he complimented while the people around him stared with awe or amazement, or even fear. Kurenai nuzzled his leg and uttered her thanks before Riley started walking through the crowd this time.

"That was awesome!" Amber cried out once she got her fur back in order. she pumped a paw into the air.

"That **was** really fun." Scarlet confirmed "Hey, could we find a bow shop while we're headed to this library?"

"Of course, Scarlet. What'll it be this time? Ribbon? Bow? Flower?" Riley asked. His mind was preoccupied with the other things Yellow had told him as he spoke, however. " _I will care for Kurenai's pokeball, as I might need it for the case. If they need to see Kurenai, I will bring you here. It might interrupt your schedule I gave you, but it would be top priority. I would call, and send you to wait somewhere for your transportation to arrive. These could be a good number of difficult days. On an even more depressing note, if you find anything regarding those murders, contact the officer Jenny of Cerulean. Got it?"_ Yellow had informed him. She did indeed have the pokeball, but of all people Riley trusted Yellow with it. She would not lose it. In fact, it was hidden so thoroughly in her pack, inside of a case, inside of another, locked case, and sealed permanently shut; nothing would ever get that thing away from Yellow without a lot of work, and then it would take a lot of effort to even use it.

Yes, Kurenai's pokeball was in good hands.

"I think I would have to look." Scarlet decided after a moment. The girl flicked her ears as she heard the people around the jabbering on about all the oddities of this new person in their midst. Talking to his pokemon as if he can understand them. The pichu has spikes on her ear. The eevee was willing to smack him—as she just had when he joked about giving her another bath during the mock argument that had just blossomed between the two—and the absol was **extremely** affectionate towards him, nuzzling him whenever she got the chance. That was because of the fact that he had saved her life, of course, and she was definitely attached to him after that.

The boy walked into a decoration shop, where they sold props for pokemon. Riley explained that no, he didn't want something for her, Scarlet wanted something. The woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow in a manner that perfectly conveyed the word 'Suuuurrree…'. Scarlet then showed her what Riley meant by jumping away from his shoulder and searching through the ribbons at impressive speeds.

"Oh, you're not joking." the woman hummed, surprised.

"She lost hers taking the brunt of a bolt of lightning. On a clear day." Riley clarified "it didn't make sense to us, either, but it was definitely not pokemon electricity."

"Oh, the poor things. She's too young to be absorbing lightning."

"Yeah. I know. Came out of nowhere."

Scarlet was not listening to this, instead having burrowed into the piles of ribbons she had found. That is, until she found something she liked. Her head popped out of the pile of multicolored ribbons with a—wait for it—scarlet colored ribbon held up above her. Riley was impressed. "The-everything-at once option, eh?" he asked.

The ribbon was wide, but thin, tied up like a bow, with a large amount of ribbon tied and glued together at the center to resemble the head of a rose in the middle of it. It was rather large, but they watched her fit it upon the spikes on her ear. She tied it into place, and Riley looked to the girl at the counter.

"I think she likes it." she offered.

"I think she does." Riley agreed, and moved to the computer at his end of the counter. Entering the password that Yellow had drilled into his poor skull, he put a miniscule amount of the funds that he had for this month into the ribbon scarlet had chosen.

"If you get blasted by mystery lightning again, feel free to come back." the woman waved to Riley as he walked off, Scarlet rejoining him at his shoulder.

"Thank you." Riley gave a small wave back as he walked out of the place.

"Library now, huh?" Scarlet

"Glad Metagross taught me to read english and footprint runes and unknown lettering." Riley muttered. his education had been quite extensive for not being involved in the human society. He had an advantage in many regards, but…

"But he didn't teach you how to use a key?" Amber quipped "'cause if you hadn't gotten lucky, I'd be rotting in that cage still."

"Oh?" Riley looked at her with a raised brow. Amber tried to escape far too late.

* * *

One crushing hug later, and Amber had drawn the attention of everybody nearby.

"This is so much worse than what I had seen coming!" Amber wailed as Riley allowed the others nearby to pet the 'adorable little eevee'. he ruffled the fur and ears of Amber while smiling. Amber gave her an evil stare.

" _I will get you back."_ she promised in her mind.

" _Nobody's gonna start petting_ _ **me**_ " Riley shot back with his own thought. The two understood each other well enough that despite not being mind readers, they understood each other perfectly. Amber scowled.

"You're right. Not a single person's gonna pet somebody as ugly as **you**." she vocalized.

"Ugly, am I? Compared to you?" Riley responded, with a familiar raised brow. Amber's escape was even more impeded by the people paying attention to her, and got another crushing hug.

"Owowow…. I **hate** being cute!" Amber cried.

"Alright, I think that's enough." Riley announced, putting the eevee back on his shoulder, where she stayed, catching her breath. He walked off, Kurenai wishing she was small enough to be hugged and carried as such.

The Cerulean Library. Tall, with blue tinted glass windows surrounding it, four stories high. The cylindrical building was inviting and calm looking, with less people surrounding it. Some of the children avoided the building like it was the plague, actually. Amber noted the younger boys who likely preferred their video games leading their friends across the street when they reached this block so that nobody could suggest—gods forbid—they go in there.

Riley strode in without a second thought. The doors opened without his opening them, sliding apart. The boy looked back at them, wondering how they could possibly work, before approaching the counter.

"How may I help you?" the woman at the counter asked of him. She was young, younger than the one at the ribbon shop, actually. She liked it there. It was quiet, and the people who were there mostly wanted to be here.

"Hi." Riley greeted, dragging out the yellow sheet of paper "I've got this, ah, what did she call it?"

"Reading list." Scarlet supplied.

"Reading list. Thank you, Scarlet. This reading list that I need to look at for some reasearch, and such."

She looked it over. "That's quite an mixed list." she commented "You're going to be walking all about the building for these." she started tapping away at her computer "I will print out maps to the parts of the building where you will find the books, and you'll be able to find them with no problem."

She hit the enter key as Riley said "thank you."

The girl went into the back room, to pick up the papers. She tucked her black hair behind her shoulder again, the darn stuff kept getting in the way. Green eyes watched the printer finish printing the several pages with all sorts of marks on where to find things.

She walked back to her desk, and handed the orange haired boy the directions. She looked at his blue eyes wondering what that look was. It was almost as if he was analyzing her. At the same time, she thought he was probably about his age, and the pokemon with him were matching his look, with the exception of the absol, who looked more apprehensive of her. They were an odd bunch. At the same time, they seemed like they would make the right decision.

Her impulsive thought was the one she shoved down as she nodded to the boy, who said "thank you" before walking off. The absol took the time to give her a bow before leaving, which was also odd.

Riley went to the staircase and walked up first. he was going for the fourth floor, for the myths and legends section. Best to start with something at least remotely interesting, right?

* * *

"Lies!" Riley exclaimed, pointing at the page of the thick old book in his hand. This attracted the attention of the rest of the people in that room. Amber actually waved them off, which only attracted their attention more. Riley calmed himself slightly. "What? Dialga is bigger than that!" he whisper-yelled."

"Uh… Aren't you supposed to be looking for the guardian of life?" Scarlet asked, looking at the page.

"That was what was on the list." Kurenai spoke up, sitting on the chair next to Riley. He quickly read over the list again, muttering. The others around the boy were conflicted. On one hand, he could have no idea what he was talking about. On the other hand, he had books all over his table and looked like he was studying hard.

Everything about the kid in the middle of the library gave conflicting messages. Was he smart? Was he impulsive?

Yes. Riley was those things, when it came to reasoning about things…. As long as he understood the topic.

"Palkia… Giratina… These are gods dubbed legendary pokemon, but i'm not seeing a single thing-..." Riley was cut off as he flipped through to Dialga's page again. "...I think I missed something…" he muttered on a whim.

Kurenai leaned in. "What's that?" she asked, pointing a claw at the book.

Riley looked at the page, reading it in greater detail to see what Kurenai meant. "Dialga is the embodiment of time in the universe." he read "it is said that time flows as his heart beats… The embodiment of time, known in ancient times as the giver of time, or the Guardian of Time. The latter name has always been attributed to the image of a humanoid figure in ancient texts and images, but Dialga has never shown the ability to take the appearance of a human in any recorded time. Nevertheless, Dialga and The Guardian of Time have been mentioned together in many texts, most of those texts having not been properly translated as of this time…"

he looked up from the book. "Guardian of Time." he repeated "Amber, that girl said she was the Guardian of Life, right?"

"Right." Amber responded.

"Think they're in the same group?" Scarlet inquired.

"These mentioned ancient texts are… well… ancient." Riley muttered "They would have to be really old."

"Totally calling her 'old lady' next time." Amber muttered.

"..." Riley was silent as he flicked through legendary pokemon. Groudon. Rayquaza. Mesprit and her little group. Zapdos…. Xerneas.

Xerneas. The giver of life. It's description had a lot about giving life, and again, the additional titles of the god pokemon including the guardian of life, but again attributing the title to a human form and mentioning that no recent appearance of the legendary involved it appearing human. Instead, the name was commonly mentioned in mostly untranslated texts along with the name Xerneas.

"This is the image that people found in lost books they uncovered." Riley announced. He held it up. In the corner, was an old artists rendering. A girl with fancy clothing with flower petal structures. There was no color, but the hair was clearly dark, and dropped down to her shoulders.

"...That's her, all right." Amber confirmed. Riley looked at the image, realizing that there was no image for the guardian of time. How inconvenient.

"...But other than that, that's just about nothing. No reference page whatsoever…" Riley muttered. He searched through the entire book, finding nothing more. Amber huffed, and Kurenai gave a sympathetic sigh.

"So everything we know about the crazy grass lady is that she's really old." Amber muttered.

"Do any of the other legendary pokemon have references to them?" Kurenai now asked, and Riley started going through the other legendary pokemon and their descriptions.

"...Um… Giratina. This one has a… Well, that's barely a picture." Riley muttered. The image looked like a black flame with the outline and some defining features of a human shape with solid colored eyes. They eyes were specifically colored purple; the only picture from older times not to be purely black and white. Then, something else occurred to him.

"Well, that's creepy." Scarlet murmured, looking from Riley to the picture. Riley couldn't help but agree. Visible through the black flames was semi-short hair, piercing eyes, a tall build with defined muscles. That, and the eyes seemed to be staring straight at them.

"...That **has** to be just imagination." Riley drew his finger along the image, finding himself covering the eyes depicted by the image, and the creepy feeling subsided.

"...Please change pages…" Kurenai murmured, and Riley obliged after a moment. He continued looking through the different legendary pokemon, and then read the rest of the book. No other legendary pokemon mentioned them.

Riley closed that book, and set it aside. He would have to keep that one with him and show it to Yellow. Then, he picked up the next one. "Experimental and Supernatural Theories" he read. After the last creepy moment, this ought to be something a little less spooky.

"No monocolor eyed dark thing seeming to be looking at us and looks similar to you?" Scarlet pleaded, peeking at the book from behind Riley's shoulder.

"...Probably not. Hopefully not." Riley assured her "I admit it, it creeped me out too."

Amber didn't start anything. She was still staring at the book Riley had set down. She wasn't about to fault Riley for being creeped out after **that**. Something had simply seemed really wrong with that little picture, almost as though it was staring straight out of the page.

"...This will take a long time." Riley muttered "Even the table of contents has loads of things, and this book is **really** big."

"Well then." Amber said cheerfully "get to reading!" Riley scowled at the eevee, though Scarlet giggled.

"...How can I help?" Kurenai asked, pulling a book to her with her paw.

"...Do you know how to read?" Riley asked, flipping to a page labelled by the table of contents.

"...N-no…"

"Do you want to learn how to read?"

Kurenai gained sparkles in her eyes. "You'd do that for me?" she asked.

"Of course. We have all the time we need for reading this stuff." Riley replied.

Riley turned the page to the section he had found first. "Waves of influence." Riley read "The title of the article. This one's apparently purely conceptual, so there are few physical grounds for it, but it could be interesting."

"Those first words on the top of the page on the left say 'waves of influence'?" Kurenai asked. Riley nodded.

"The 'W' here…" Riley began to explain how the letters translated to sounds. Kurenai listened intently, proving to be a fast learner as she pronounced the words Riley was saying. The others around the group, of course, heard her repeatedly saying portions of her species name or her full name.

"Listen to that." one man whispered to the one next to him "That kid's teaching his pokemon to read."

"How nice of him." the other muttered "What good'll that do?"

"He seems to be able to communicate with them. Perhaps it's strategy for battle?"

"Meh. Maybe he just thinks the absol understands what is going on."

"Hey, maybe she does."

"Maybe."

After a while of teaching Kurenai the sounds of each letter, sets of letters, and warning her about the occasional silent letter, Riley proceeded to have the female absol try and read a few things.

"...Wayv-es… No, you said **waves**. Kurenai muttered "So the letters 'es' just ends the word like an 's'?"

"Yeah."

"Waves… Of… Influence…" Kurenai murmured "'of' is easy enough, and your explanation of the sounds makes the last word make… **some** sense"

"You can read in your mind if you want, and I'll read aloud. Try to correct what you think it sounds like based on what I am saying. Maybe that will work." Riley offered.

Kurenai rested her head on Riley's shoulder and looked down at the book as Scarlet had gone and looked at a different book. She had been listening.

"Waves of influence is the concept that moments that have great impact on time and-slash-or space can directly affect other universes. The concept of a wave of influence is that similar moments, scenarios, or even people can appear in those universes as a result of impactual moments and people in this universe. This has been a more accepted explanation of the phenomenon shown in the few scenarios with parallel worlds that have been recorded. Specifically, the existence of people with very similar names and appearances, sometimes appearing exactly like their counterparts in this universe. Events also seem to be similar, and this concept has been growing in popularity to explain it." Riley read, and took a deep breath to get some air back.

"Sounds fun." Amber said from the right. "But it doesn't sound like it has anything to do with what we are going on about."

Riley kept on reading. "...part of the reason that this explanation is beginning to be accepted is due to the fact that some people recall naming their child or an event because that name 'just came to them', specifically in scenarios when naming people, and has been likened to an external force by some. Other popular concepts to try and explain this 'external force' include the intervention of gods or legendaries, found on page sixty eight…" Riley continued.

"Well that's gotta be a cop-out for naming somebody on a whim, right?" Amber quipped.

"...A lot of stuff has to do with legendary pokemon, I think." Riley returned "Or other things that are supernatural in nature."

Kurenai looked over at Amber. "How would you know how humans operate?" she asked innocently. In fact, she hadn't meant it to be a nasty retort, instead asking it quite innocently, but Amber still grumbled and frowned.

"D-did I do something wrong!?" Kurenai panicked.

"No." Riley told her, rubbing her head. "Amber, she didn't mean anything by that."

Amber flicked her ear. "Yeah. Alright." she muttered "and I guess I don't know a thing, do I?"

"Stop." Riley commanded. "Kurenai, it's fine. Don't worry. Amber, that's unusual for you. What's up?"

Kurenai rubbed her cheek against his hand, glad that he did not dislike her for her blunder… whatever mistake she had made, though Amber was silent for a bit. Riley looked at her. "Amber, I need to know what is up with you before things get more difficult."

"..."

"...Are you not used to Kurenai yet?" Riley guessed "...Or… Are you used to getting a lot of affection from me, petting and such?"

Kurenai, clueless, watched as Amber murmured a reply that she could not hear. "...Something like that…" Amber murmured "I don't know, it's weird."

"Well, I'm not going to let you two compete, you got that?" Riley told them "I happen to like the **both** of you, and that won't ever change, you got that?"

Amber brightened a bit. "Yeah, I guess… I'm just used to being able to banter a bit and still feel like there was a lot of connection between us, but now, our discussions are all relevant and have a point, and it feels like we only got a week of being, you know, disconnected to the world, which was actually kind of nice." she explained.

Riley smiled and ruffled her fur. "We always banter." he reminded her. "but yeah. Life got serious fast, didn't it? I hate a serious life, unless it involves protecting people like you and Kurenai and Scarlet… We could be all carefree and such, but let's save that for when we don't have things to do. After Yellow goes back to Viridian, we should have plenty of time to do something fun on the journey. That sound good?"

The three female pokemon all cheered and thrust their paws in the air.

"Yes!"

"Awesome!"

"I like it!"

Riley suddenly stilled. "When Yellow's gone… Along with her pokemon… I'll…" he began, but trailed off and suddenly became very preoccupied with his book, going through more things in the book silently.

Kurenai leaned across his shoulders to look at Amber. "What's going on?" she asked the eevee, worried.

Amber sniggered. "He either is worried about being surrounded by only girls, or he **really** wants to be with Yellow, y'know, in **that** way."

Riley froze. "Where the heck did **that** idea come from?" I demanded.

"I don't know what is going on." Kurenai complained cluelessly.

Riley sighed with relief while Amber laughed in his face and Scarlet looked embarrassed at the fact that the conversation was even happening. She was a kid, after all. Kurenai was absolutely clueless, but once Amber got to them, she probably wouldn't be.

" _Two sources of innocence will be destroyed today…"_ Riley thought to himself, shivering. He felt nothing for Yellow, though the moments when she was really close to him had been embarrassing to a degree, particularly because such close contact could have been avoided.

He kept going through all of the information. He spent the rest of the day reading, and keeping the two books that he had found interesting things in as well as the books he had been unable to read by the end of the day, he put the rest back in their places and went to check the books out.

Green eyes met blue. "You want to check these out? There are a lot of them." the lady at the counter asked.

"Yeah. Poring over every single word is hard when you have three females bickering and questioning and you decided to teach two of them to read…" his reply was cut off by a yawn "Really, I don't know how sane I'll be in two years."

"Well, be sure not to lose any of them." she responded, pulling out a few heavy duty bags with book symbols on them. "I'll check them out for you, and you can then put them in here. If you lose any of them, you'll have to either pay for them or find them. You'll also have to pay if they are destroyed."

"Got it." he replied, setting the pile of books on her desk. "No destroying, no losing, no allowing random people who want to take me out for whatever reason near them. Got it."

The woman raised an eyebrow. This guy was strange, all right. Understanding pokemon, teaching them to read, studying a bunch of random subjects and practically unreadable. She started setting the books away, and for found herself wanting to make conversation.

"What is your name?" she asked, setting book after book in the bag.

"Riley."

"I'm Millicent. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"...Thank you." he replied halfheartedly.

"Pi-Pichu. Pi?" the pichu on his shoulder tugged at his collar.

"Sorry" he apologized "Getting tired of human interaction."

Millicent looked up. "Human interaction?" she asked, intrigued now. Some pokemon could pull illusions. "Then what have you been doing all this time?"

"Living in… the woods, surviving with pokemon, not dealing with the silly shenanigans of the rest of my species." Riley muttered. "Generally enjoying life before I got wrapped up in all of this, though I have saved several pokemon from humans who would harm them." he continued "and having conversations with humans is exhausting me because I don't trust them and have little reason to trust them, considering the things I have seen done to pokemon."

"Granted" he continued "Humans have done impressive things, and some trainers treat their pokemon right. The problem is that a lot of them don't. Dumbass humans-... Why is it not common knowledge, taught in schools, that pokemon are sentient? Why is that not drilled into their heads? Because they're thick that's why." he ranted.

Millicent blinked after he was finished. She watched him calm down a bit. He certainly made her question how humans treated pokemon. Having lived with pokemon all his life, him calling humans dumbasses **probably** carried more weight than it normally would. That, and, knowing that he himself was a human, he was willing to insult his own species.

"Do you consider yourself human?" Millicent asked him.

He seemed to ponder it. "Ee." the eevee said, a short and curt vowel that probably meant 'no'. Scarlet looked indecisive, and the absol was waiting for his response. Riley ruffled the eevee's head fur, and then the absol's, and then the pichu's. He seemed to come to a decision.

"Barely."

And then he was gone. Millicent watched him take the bags, and the library card she had slid on the counter next to them with his account, and was staring at the door for a long time afterwards.

* * *

Days later, Yellow returned to Cerulean. She had called Riley, and apparently everything was going fine for him. He had found a few things, and was holding a few books with bookmarks in them for her and had put the rest back. He had learned a lot, but one thing that had Yellow slightly uneasy was that Riley had been freaked out by something he found, and was actually hesitant to do so much as bookmark it. He could barely explain it.

Yellow waited near the hotel for Riley to come out as planned. No doubt he was being hassled by the girls, Amber, Scarlet, and Kurenai. She pondered on how the deal had gone in Vermillion. The family had gone to court, but it was laughably easy to prove their abuse towards the pokemon they were illegally breeding and using for monetary gain, with inhuman treatment of them in physical, as well as psychological manners. She had not needed to call the boy to Viridian to show Kurenai as proof at all.

She had then sent the pokeball to professor Oak, who promised to take it to where the other balls were hidden where nobody would ever find them. Yellow couldn't wait to heal Kurenai of the scars hidden under her fur.

* * *

"Huh. There's the girl…"

A man with a sheath at each hip looked through binoculars through one of the trees in the nearby park. Completely hidden with the exception of the binoculars poking through the foliage.

"She's waiting around. No Riley in sight. Pity. A fight would have been nice today. I could use the exercise." he murmured, shifting slightly the side to look down the road. He waited a few more minutes, before he saw something.

"Ah, there you are, kid." he muttered, looking at the red haired boy walking around the corner. He halted and turned his head to the right to see Yellow, and began walking towards her. His orange hair was quite obvious in the light.

" _Something's wrong."_ he thought, zooming in on the boy " _he's not showing much emotion. Must be serious."_

Then, something caused the man to stiffen as he saw a smaller detail with his trained eye, using the zoom and enhance trick (cliche as hell, but whatever) on his binoculars to zoom in quite close to the boy's face.

"...What?" Zach muttered, deciding to keep an eye on the situation.

* * *

Yellow relaxed. The situation was over, Matt was home, and she herself could go home to Viridian once Riley was situated. She had grown to enjoy the boy's company—in terms of friendship, of course—and would probably check up on him occasionally to make sure he was doing fine.

By chance, her gaze wandered as she watched passing cars to see a familiar boy walk around the corner, with his fire orange hair. "Riley!" she called, waving gleefully. The boy began to walk towards her. He was wearing different clothing, normal looking clothing, with the exception of two white metal boots.

"Did you leave the other three in the hotel then?" Yellow inquired, looking at the building "Anybody would need a break from a group of the opposite gender after a while, I get it."

No response.

"And the clothing is different. You must feel lighter without the metal lace clothing you had, but I assume it's being washed. You don't go anywhere without those clothes."

Still no response.

Yellow became unnerved. "The boots are new, though they make a lot of noise." she muttered. Why wasn't Riley speaking to her? He was always willing to talk. And something else. "Riley, what happened to your staff?" Riley never, ever traveled without his staff.

No response at all. The boy silently strode up to her. She worriedly looked up at his dull turquoise eyes. Had something happened to him? Was he all right? Was something the matter? She had called him mere hours ago.

Yellow froze, and blinked.

 **Turquoise** eyes.

She looked again. She blinked again. Then, her eyes widened and she leaped away from the boy.

 **CRACK!**

Faster than the eye could follow, the imposter had brought his leg up and down, destroying that tile of the sidewalk with ease, leaving a crater with his metal boot. If Yellow's head had still been there, it would have been crushed like a melon.

The boy who was definitely **not** Riley mutely lifted his heel out of the crater he had made, and tilted his toe downwards. yellow saw a blade slide back into the heel of the boot. She would have been crushed like a melon **and** stabbed.

He impassively looked her in the eyes. His foot hovered in place as he balanced effortlessly on one foot. Yellow shakily straightened. "Alright. Who the fuck are you, and why the hell do you look exactly like Riley!?" Yellow yelled at the boy.

He indeed was identical in almost every way. Hair color, hairstyle, face and body shape, his muscles were equal in size to Riley's. His face was absolutely identical. The only physical attribute that differentiated the two was the turquoise eyes.

The Riley lookalike mutely stared Yellow down. He never said a word. He never spoke, never made so much as the slightest sound with his voice. He was mute, which was creepy as hell. His eyes were the definition of dull. At the same time, a dark evil hid behind those eyes.

"...What the fuck do you want?" Yellow cursed softly this time. it was a redundant question; he obviously was there to kill her off. For some reason. And this was definitely a good time to curse, as it was a proper 'what the actual fuck' moment, along with the fact that she was in very real danger.

She looked at the crater in the sidewalk, and paled. Crushed, with a thicker blade having damaged the ground underneath it, leaving a groove. One example had appeared for such damage exactly once before.

She was apparently not the first target then. Or maybe she was, and these people had found out as he stood there, so he killed them. That seemed more likely. If Yellow was a target, then this mute asshole was targeting people of great importance.

Her mind analyzed the situation. He had slashed the throats of two others, so those metal boots must have some more weapons in them. They were white… Perhaps more enchanted vibranium? This was a massive problem. If anyone had seen him, Riley might have been blamed.

The imposter walked towards Yellow slowly, mechanically. Yellow continued backing up. She wanted him to say something, but… It was almost as if he wasn't even alive with that lack of vocals.

 **Clank**.

His boot slammed into the ground again as he continued walking towards Yellow. Yellow now activated the police tracker that she carried surreptitiously. "Alright, you." Yellow told him "I need to get Riley over here. I'm sure he'd be **so** glad to meet you."

No response.

* * *

"You will never get me in that water!"

The cry of the pokemon would catch the attention of anybody right outside the door. Human shouts would follow, obviously.

"After that fiasco north of the city!? Your fur is no longer the correct color! At all!"

"Mud brown is just fine as a color! It's camouflage! Get me away from that water! Can't I just get clean with my tongue or something?"

"You want to clean off enough mud to double your weight with your **tongue**? This can get you clean in so much less time!"

Another pokemon's voice rang out. "I got in the bath… You can get in the bath."

"I am not getting in that water!" the first pokemon cried out, and the sounds of a struggle was present.

"We're supposed to have this room at least somewhat clean!" Riley protested now, proving that he was far stronger than his adversary.

The boy was forcing the mud covered quadruped into the hot water of the bath, and was getting all sorts of scratches and cuts on him, some of them actually rather deep. Eventually he forced the pokemon into the water, breathing heavily because she was surprisingly strong, and started removing the monstrous amount of mud on her while she thrashed.

It took five minutes, but eventually, brown turned into… black and white.

Kurenai regressed to sitting, soaking wet, in the tub, facing Riley and glaring with a burning anger they had not seen in the girl whatsoever so far. "You" Riley began "usually are nice and kind. What the heck?"

"I hate the water." Kurenai growled. Her eyes were replaced by a fiery anger. Normally passive, and enjoying life with Riley and the others, Kurenai now resolved to never give Riley reason to give her a bath again.

"Look. Your fur is all nice. It's the right color." Riley tried to soothe the glowering absol. He tugged on one of his bleeding wounds absently "Your horn is really sharp. You know that, right?"

"Yes."

"...I needed you to be clean, preferably before things got too messy."

"..."

"...Maybe forgive me?" Riley pleaded, hoping not to get gored by the vengeful girl. Why were so many of the girls he met willing to hurt him? He didn't want to hurt them back.

"Maybe when I'm dry."

Riley sweatdropped. He finally drained the muddy water and made sure that all of the mud was out of the tub. "Better than spraying you with a hose like that asshole we passed by suggested." he muttered. "I don't even know what a hose was, but it would probably involve water."

Kurenai shuddered. "They blast water at full force in large amounts." she replied, losing some of that anger for a moment. Then, she remembered that she was in fact supposed to be **furious** with Riley right now.

"Well, this should help a bit." Riley muttered, bringing the towel about. He set in on the ground, and Kurenai spent the energy on another glare before leaping out of the accused tub and lying on the towel with a grumble. Riley wrapped the female absol in it and, after getting a clever (and somewhat evil) idea, he tied up the towel and started twirling her about on the floor while drying her off with the towel rather than just rubbing the water out of her particularly absorptive fur.

When he let her go, her fur was all sticking straight up and she looked absolutely ridiculous. "How do you feel? Riley asked the absol, who was trying to smooth her fur back down fruitlessly. The rest of the group was laughing at various volumes at her.

Then she pounced on Riley. She was above him, claws on his chest. Riley wondered if she was going to try and attack. Instead, she just started nuzzling him again.

"Take the absol out of the water and she's just fine. Out of nowhere." Amber deadpanned "How the heck does that work?"

 **Zatch!**

"Oh!" Riley muttered "Static electricity." he continued nuzzling him with her puffed up fur; he'd be getting zapped for hours on end after this.

"Oh~ sweet revenge." Kurenai said "I forgive you now!"

"Glad to hear it." Riley told her "But if you don't like baths, try not to get so freakishly muddy that you can't be identified by species, all right? Otherwise, we wouldn't need water to clean you properly."

"Aaaand now she'll be the cleanest absol in existence for all of her life." Scarlet piped up from where she had been hiding from the absol's flailing appendages.

"Sorted, then." Riley said, walking out to his room's balcony and throwing open the door. He swept to the balcony edge and looked out at the street below.

Scarlet caught up to him and got onto his shoulder. "Weren't you supposed to meet Yellow down there?" she asked, pointing to the street. Riley blinked, startled. He had forgotten! He looked down, to see Yellow. She was… Backing away? She was backing away from-

"...What?" Riley blinked, doing a double take. Orange hair, a very familiar face... The sidewalk was damaged behind the kid who looked just like him. The kid wore heavy boots, a white metal. There were too many white metals like his staff around as of late. it was annoying, frankly.

"Scarlet." he muttered.

"Yeah?"

"Get back inside. Tell Amber and Kurenai to stay put, and stay put yourself. Tell them I said this is incredibly important for them to stay safe." Riley requested. The pichu nodded and jumped off of him to run in towards the other girls, and Riley looked back. "I'm on my way." he promised, and leaped right off the balcony.

Yellow eventually tripped. So focused was she on this imposter that she had not payed attention to where she was going. She landed on her back, and the Riley lookalike brought up one foot and started a spin that would probably take her head off.

But that wasn't the only thing she saw.

 **CLANG!**

The boot was stopped on it's way down by another orange haired boy, also incredibly familiar. His staff had caught two sickle-like blades that came from the base of the front of his foot, two inches apart, which would aid his back-kick. The staff had caught them.

Riley turned his familiar blue eyes to her and gave her a quick smile. "Run." he told her, as his doppelganger drew his foot back slowly and silently. Yellow gave a gasp after she got up. "Riley!" she protested "You're already hurt and you haven't done any fighting yet!"

"Kurenai needed a bath."

Yellow was silenced, sweatdropping. She opened her mouth to speak, but eventually just decided not to ask. She backed up a bit, allowing Riley to have the stage. "Be careful." she pleaded "I think he's the one that killed those three near the entrance to Cerulean."

"So who the heck are you then? That's **my** look, buddy." Riley told the other, readying his staff. "And I'm protecting Yellow. Your fight's with me, not her."

he swung with a back-kick again, which Riley caught the blades of. Then, Riley was wide eyed as he felt his feet slide two feet across the ground. "Alright…" Riley muttered, his eyes overshadowed. Yellow got what that look meant; he was getting serious about what he was doing. The girl backed up even more.

The others saw her do this again and they themselves backed up. Riley thrust the boy's foot away and brought his staff around in a quick and brutal attack… Which was blocked. Easily. The turquoise-eyed boy earned another glare for bringing his boot up to catch the attack so… casually.

That dull look and the lack of words… Was he even awake? Even alive? Riley jumped at the boy, and tried to launch consecutive attacks at him. The boy shifted to the side, and tried to attack with a crushing kick as he fell. Riley was prepared for such an eventuality, brought his legs up, and landed right on the extended leg of the other before kicking him right in the face, launching him away two meters.

He touched down with his hands and completed the extra leap to land on his feet. He began walking towards Riley faster, and Riley tensed. He readied his staff in a defensive stance. However, he was not truly prepared for the speed of the other boy. The blur of his boot came from a front flip, but once Riley had the boot stopped with his staff, the other boot came straight towards the staff and the force of the attack sent Riley flying straight into traffic.

After skidding to a stop, Riley had to leap straight up to avoid the massive truck that had almost flattened him. he rebounded off of the truck as it made a loud honking noise, and landed back at the sidewalk.

"That was close. I'll admit it." Riley said, changing the position of his staff to where he held it like a katana backwards in his hand. "You'll have to do much better than that to kill me."

Upon getting no response, only another kick to the face that Riley ducked before striking at his doppelganger's gut, only for the other foot to leave the ground and block the attack as the boy did a backflip to avoid the attack.

Riley stood up after that. "Really, you **do** know how fights are supposed to work, right?" he quipped "There's supposed to be **banter**. We jab at each other in words and **then** fight. You do **know** that, right?"

No response.

"I mean, really. This is **boring**. At least Zach had some good lines."

No response.

"No? Nothing?"

 **CLANG!**

"Guess not." Riley muttered and disengaged the boot before moving in to strike with his staff as he now held it. The doppelganger swung his boot at Riley, but only hit an afterimage. Riley was behind him, his technique when holding his staff in this way boosting the speed his fighting style had. He moved his staff to it's normal position and repeatedly slammed the other boy in the back, hoping to cause enough pain to hinder the boy.

But the turquoise-eyed boy had other ideas, apparently. He reached his hand back and swiftly caught the weapon, kicking out as he twisted to deliver a side kick into Riley's stomach. The blue eyed buy gasped as he was sent sailing through the air; thankfully everyone had cleared out by this point. he, disoriented as he was, slammed brutally into the lightpost next to the road hard enough to put a dent in the metal, where he fell off of it and landed on his feet. Barely.

The fake was after him again. He got to his feet, disoriented. He had not been hit that hard in years. "You're good, I will give you that." Riley complimented, preparing his staff like one would a double edged sword now. Strength would perhaps be an ally here. He received no response yet again.

"Right. blades come your boots when you swing at things., but striking with the flat part brings no blades out at all. No room for them?" Riley asked "Or was that just a design flaw and they couldn't do anything about it because it was enchanted vibranium and they'd have to nuke it again to fix it? Those can't have been easy to make."

The boy strode at Riley, eyes still looking dull and emotionless. Riley again wondered whether this kid was actually alive. Then… "Riley! I want to help!" came from their side.

Both boys turned in unison, in the same manner, which was odd enough for the pokemon who had just arrived. Scarlet, interestingly enough, had decided to be brave.

"Get out of here, Scarlet! It's too dangerous!" Riley scolded the pichu "He's not after you! Don't attract his attention!"

"I can't watch you get hurt anymore!" Scarlet responded, and her cheeks sparked. Riley's eyes widened when she winced afterwards, and small burn marks appeared on her cheek pouches.

"Scarlet, what's wrong?" he asked, worried, forgetting the boy, who fortunately seemed to just be standing there emotionlessly. She generated more power, and let out a loud squeak as she launched a bolt of lightning. The doppelganger had brought his boot up.

Several things were evident after that. One, the bolt was nearly instantaneous, much faster than pokemon lightning. It was brighter. The air smelled of ozone. The turquoise eyed boy had absorbed the charge with his boot, making the enchanted vibranium shine with a brilliant light. Then, after the sound of the lightning dissipated, Scarlet's squeaks of pain could be heard.

Riley ran over to her. She was covered in burns. She was now unconscious, and badly damaged. "Damn it, Scarlet!" he yowled. He checked on his doppelganger, and his eyes widened. He dove to the side.

 **KRACKOW!**

the bolt of plasma, AKA lightning, erupted from the fake's boot and obliterated a large radius at the point where they had been standing. His boots definitely **were** enchanted vibranium. Riley kept the injured pichu to his chest. This time, her bow seemed to be in perfect condition this time.

"Kurenai!" He yelled, calling the absol from where the pokemon had hidden. "Carry Scarlet back, and this time, **hide. Yourselves. Got it**?"

Kurenai lightly grabbed Scarlet by the scruff and obediently bounded off. Riley quickly moved to stand in the way of the lookalike. "You attacked my friends." Riley growled, his staff readied, his eyes shadowed.

And then, the lookalike was looking at an afterimage again. Riley was going full force for trying to kill Scarlet. " **I.** " riley growled, kicking the other boy in the stomach and launching him in the air. " **Will.** " he continued, running straight up the lightpost, and leaping out sideways to strike him in the skull with the heavy end of his staff and send him bouncing against the concrete. " **Kill**." he muttered, darting near the boy and levering him up " **YOU!** " Riley roared, bringing his staff around while jumping to crush his skull.

 **Thunk.**

Time practically froze. The staff had not struck its mark, instead having been promptly caught by the copy, caught with one hand, and the overhead swing left Riley very open. On the other hand, it would have been fine had his adversary had reasonable human strength, but even so…

Time seemed to speed up slowly again, and the doppelganger twisted, swinging his boot up and around in a backwards roundhouse kick. **Shink!** The sickle-like blades slid from the boots and slashed open his stomach in two places, deep wounds that bled profusely. Riley gasped in pain and shock, as the strike was so fast and unprecedented.

Then, Riley, still in the air, turned his head to see the fake leaping up next to him in the air, where he slammed his boot straight into Riley's face. The blue eyed boy sailed over the road, and up towards the opposite building. He slammed back first into the two story building a foot from the roof and toppled down to the sidewalk, where he landed brutally, unconscious. His blood spread from him in a pool while his opponent looked around for Yellow.

Who was nowhere to be seen. She was in fact all the way on the roof, having been astonished that Riley had been defeated; she had not sent her pokemon out because they could have gotten in the way of what should have been a victory.

"Riley is injured. Bring a medical team. The orange haired boy that is still standing and is wearing white boots is **not** Riley. He looks like him, but he isn't. Take the utmost caution with him. Riley is on the opposite side of the road, while I am staying out of sight. He is after me. I repeat, he is after me."

"Understood, Yellow. The first responders should be there any minute. They had to travel on foot in this traffic. We will send medical teams as well." the voice of Officer Jenny returned.

"Make haste. Riley's hurt bad."

Yellow did not take the risk of looking down at the boy who had defeated Riley. She instead ran down the stairs. She pulled a hat out of her bag, stuffed her longer hair into it as she put it on, and checked through a window of the hotel.

He was walking off. He moved as if nothing had happened at all. The strikes Riley had landed were not affecting him whatsoever. He walked away, apparently still searching for me. I stayed out of sight now.

The phone rang again, and I picked it up. "Yellow, We're here. Stay safe while we try to handle the situation. The medical team is about to reach Riley. He will be safe. Where are his pokemon?"

Yellow reached out for the thoughts of pokemon. She would recognize the thoughts of Riley's companions easily. She eventually found them inside, waiting near the door. No, they were trying to move outside.

"You three!" Yellow called, dragging their attentions. "Riley will be fine. He's going to be treated. Bring Scarlet to me, now!" she ordered. Then, she looked back to the phone. "They're with me right now. One has severe burns, and I will be treating her."

"Understood."

Kurenai brought Scarlet to her, and the girl began using her power to cure the burns. " _Electrical burns."_ Yellow thought " _How did she get such burns from electricity? Unless… it was plasma she fired. How does that work?"_

Scarlet was sleeping soundly now. Yellow sighed with relief and set her down. "Kurenai, please come here." she requested, and the absol obeyed.

"W-what do you need?"

"My healing ability is far more thorough than basic healing methods… We did not say anything about that, but because the court case was not decided yet, we could not remove the scars you had. Otherwise, the family might not have been punished for mistreating you. I can remove those scars now." Yellow revealed to the absol.

Kurenai was stunned. She wouldn't have to always be reminded of being whipped? No more of the dull pain around her backside and side from the strikes? Yellow could do that for her? "You would do that for me?" she asked.

Yellow smiled. "Of course." she said, and put her palms on Kurenai's forehead. The absol shuddered as she felt the pain disappear, sighing with relief as the dull throb became nothing. She felt new again. She felt like she could run a hundred miles.

Before Kurenai could thank her, Yellow sensed a bad vibe coming from Amber. "Yellow." Amber started, looking mad "Why did you not send out any of your pokemon against him when Riley was fighting?"

"Because they were all over the place, and they would have gotten in his way." Yellow explained, but Amber was having none of it.

"You preferred him being in danger than your own pokemon." she accused "I get that you've been together a long time, but if he was outnumbered, then that asshole who looked like Riley might not have won."

Yellow stopped talking. She was making excuses. "I… My pokemon have nearly died a lot of times, okay?" she asked, seeming to break down a bit "I couldn't watch them put themselves in danger… Unless they really needed to. I try to keep them safe."

"We can't keep that moron of a redhead safe." Amber retorted "So you are going to have to do it as long as you are around. Oh wait, that's not much longer, is it?" the eevee had waves of anger rolling off of her. She stalked away "I'd think you would care more." she snarled as she walked off.

Now Yellow felt some doubt from Scarlet. "S-she's right… That wasn't nice. I get that you might have panicked or something, but he's already lost one fight…" she murmured, though she did not leave. Both of their words hit Yellow hard, because they were right. She had valued Riley less than she had the safety of her pokemon, when the damage could have been much less.

She always had valued her pokemon above all others. It made sense; they were her family. Nevertheless, Yellow felt guilt. She could have helped. She **should** have helped. Her pokemon were thinking that they could have helped as well.

Kurenai was the one to try and comfort the girl. "You were scared." she reminded Yellow "I couldn't bring myself to be involved until Scarlet got hurt." Yellow however detected an additional piece of information from Kurenai's mind.

"...Except that he told you to leave." Yellow murmured miserably, unwilling to be comforted "I didn't go because I was scared for my pokemon and didn't…" she trailed off. She sounded like she was making excuses.

The girl buried her head in her arms, and Kurenai had a discussion with Scarlet that Yellow did not bother to listen to. The sounds of an ambulance were in the background, with it's alarms piercing the silence.

Yellow checked the radio, feeling obligated to see things through, and tuned it to the Cerulean Police radio frequency. "This is Yellow" she croaked "I am safe. The pokemon are safe. Are you in pursuit of your adversary?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Do not. I repeat, **do not** fight him in close combat. He is unwilling to listen to reason. He will not speak. He would only fight Riley once he got in between me and this man. Be aware that he looks nearly identical to Riley; look for the metal boots and turquoise eyes. It is likely he is connected to the murders near the western entrance to Cerulean. Approach with caution, and issue little warning."

"Understood, Ma'am." came the reply.

"Does Riley know who this person is?" Jenny's voice came to Yellow through the radio.

"He was just as confused as I was." Yellow responded quickly. No point in making Riley seem suspicious. He had taken it better, though that seemed to be just him.

She shut down the radio. "Please, Riley… Be all right." Yellow whispered.

* * *

Zach leaned against the trunk of the tree he was in. "Damn." he muttered, having seen his target getting dragged away by paramedics. "So I don't get a rematch?"

Zach couldn't care less about actually killing the boy. It wasn't as though he really needed money. The challenge and the fight was more his style. Find someone that could put up a fight and fight them. However, the freak lookalike had torn Riley a new one, and kicked him all the way across the street.

" _Perhaps I should get him instead. I have nothing against the blonde."_ Zach thought. The boy was approaching. It was now or never, right?

Except for the police that now had the boy surrounded. If this kid could handle the boy that Zach had had some trouble with, these puny police officers didn't stand a chance. Zach gave a soft chuckle and leaned back against the trunk.

"Freeze." the man directly in front of the mute boy ordered. No response. He kept walking. "I said freeze!" he shouted, pointing his gun at the murderer.

Now, the boy stopped. His eyes unwaveringly set on the officer blocking his path. It was not due to him listening, but rather because there was an obstacle in his way.

"You are going to come with us." the man ordered, stepping forward with handcuffs, "You will be detained and punished on a later date."

He approached the silent boy, who kept eye contact with the police officer. When the officer reached him, he launched a kick directly into his chest, breaking most of his ribs and sent him flying back. The others cried out in alarm.

Oblivious, the boy began to walk again, his path cleared. "He will resist capture. He will not listen to reason, I suspect. He acts barely alive." an officer informed the others through the radio "permission to open fire?"

"...Granted." Jenny decided. This one was far too dangerous to be kept around, and they could not detain him. "Aim to cripple, not kill."

"Open fire at the legs." The man relayed to the others, one of which blasted a pistol round at the boy. Unfortunately, the boy had seen it coming somehow and swung his boot to intercept. Having swung before the bullet was fired, said bullet was easily deflected, and the one who fired cried out in pain. Blood was coming from his shoulder.

Another man fired next, a bullet that was deflected as well. This one was less fortunate; his bullet ricocheted straight into his skull, the bullet lodging in his head. He collapsed, and a cry of "cease fire!" rang out.

"Ma'am…" the officer said as the boy walked away "we couldn't hit him. He reflected the bullets with his weapons, and we have two down."

"Do not pursue the target." Jenny began, but Yellow cut in.

"They were after me. If you can't hit him, tell him that I have been moved to a safe house far from any city. If he makes tracks straight out of the city, keep a constant eye on him. His boots are enchanted vibranium; they will block anything short of a nuke and will absorb the resulting flame or other things." she informed the officers.

"Good idea." Jenny agreed "Get him out of the city. He doesn't appear to be doing much more than walking forward and attacking… Did he show any strategy at all?"

"Only when in combat." Yellow replied "Otherwise, I think he might have pretended to be Riley, as he had me fooled until I saw his eyes. Instead, he just walked towards me with those dull eyes."

The officers got the impression that she had shivered upon saying that.

They ran to confront the boy again. "You will not find Yellow here." the man told him "We have extracted her and placed her in a safe house far from any city. You will not find her in any highly populated area."

After a moment, the boy promptly changed directions and began walking to the park. "He's headed west. The nearest exit to the town." he whispered, relieved "it worked instantly. He's practically mindless."

Jenny sighed. "Thank you. Now get those injured men to the emergency vehicle."

"Yes Ma'am!"

"The kid's dangerous." Zach muttered, looking after him "I don't know if I could do that, which is saying something. I had better let him go, and wait for Riley to be in top shape again." Zach continued his rest in the tree, practically right above the oblivious police officers.

* * *

Kurenai had shown Yellow the books that Riley was going to show her, and then Yellow took those books and the three pokemon to the hospital to see Riley.

"He was badly injured." the nurse informed her with a pained expression "His stomach was ripped clean through, and he has a terrible concussion. I think he will survive, but we don't know if he will fully recover. There will be a scar, and he might be moving improperly. The healing process could take weeks. Maybe three and a half until he can leave."

"One week, then" Yellow corrected her "he heals faster and more efficiently than anybody I've seen."

The woman was skeptical, but she noted both her estimate and Yellow's estimate. She also noted Yellow's comments and nodded. "He won't be awake for at least a day. Will you be staying with him?"

"Yes." Yellow replied, and went to call Jenny. "Any news?" she asked, once the police chief picked up.

"We kept an eye on this Riley lookalike, and he did actually walk straight out of Cerulean. He is not stopping whatsoever." Jenny reported. Yellow sighed, relieved.

"Please, make sure you don't lose him. He could hurt somebody again, and if he does, I fear nothing but a full scale offensive will take him down, alongside some lost lives." Yellow said gravely "And never, **ever** release his image to the public. They could mistake him for Riley , describe his weapons, those boots. They have blades in them, probably more blades than he showed."

"You're panicking Yellow. Breath." came the stern order of Jenny. Yellow obeyed, her mind clearing somewhat. She slumped into her seat in the hall.

"...Thank you, Jenny." she murmured "Please, tell me if anything else happens."

"Will do." Jenny replied, and hung up.

Yellow had to get her mind off of their newest adversary. This one was far more brutal than Zach was. At least Zach had some degree of human emotion, and wanted the thrill of battle more than ay money. At least he wouldn't truly kill Riley. She picked up one of the books that Riley had bookmarked, the one that, according to Kurenai, had been the one that had freaked him out.

Kurenai, Amber, and Scarlet were staying with Riley, worried out of their minds, and there was no one to warn Yellow. The girl flipped the book to the page for Dialga, saw the mention of the guardian of time linked to what was thought to be Dialga's human form, though human forms had not been observed among legendaries. No image.

She flipped further. Giratina. Guardian of Darkness mention, with a picture… Yellow froze looking at it. "...One lookalike's enough…" she muttered, staring at the purple eyes of the picture that seemed to glow, though it could only have been an illusion.

It was a rough sketch, but it did have the same shape as Riley. The same defined muscles, but it was only rough distinctions within a black flame, and only the purple color stood out. She too covered the eyes, and the feeling receded. she switched pages quickly. Xerneas. guardian of life mention. This bookmark noted in Riley's writing that Amber had identified the picture as indeed being who she had seen, but the girl she had seen had said that she was human.

Which was odd, unless these humans had both a very extensive lifespan (hence Amber's added comment about calling her an 'old lady' next time) and a completely different story than any legendary pokemon. They had been mentioned in ancient texts alongside the godlike pokemon, but did not have any true connection that was speculation. if they were pure human, they would have to be completely separate from the legendary pokemon.

Which brought her to Zekrom, and noticed the lack of mention of a guardian here. She frowned. A legendary pokemon was still a pokemon. Yellow would have detected **something** had Zekrom struck at them, specifically for Scarlet. Except that here, this stated that Zekrom was one of the only known beings to naturally generate true lightning, as in plasma rather than a large quantity of only electrons.

So if there was a guardian of lightning, he or she would obviously be able to generate proper lightning and plasma as well. She had not known any humans to ever show tendencies such as that here. That was what you found in movies and fiction stories. Not real life.

The entire scenario was enigmatic, and Yellow hated it. Missing information, creepy pictures that seemed to stare at her, the jolt she felt when she looked a the image of the guardian of life… It didn't make any sense, At the same time, it was impossible to deny the existence of at least this guardian of life.

Yellow set the book back in the bag. She needed a nap.

* * *

 **Aaaand... Scene. Maybe next chapter will be more lighthearted than that one. On the other hand, some serious sh*t went down just now. You all know more about the silent enemy, watched some near misses and a solved mystery. Studying happened, and Riley was a bit more in character this time.**

 **So yes, this chapter had a lot. More will come next chapter. I resolve to become a master of time skips! I will be able to use them properly if it is the last thing I do! I just need practice. Alright, everybody. Have a nice day today, and I will see you all next time. Not much more to say, is there...**


	12. Chapter Twelve: Choice

**Hey, guys! I am back again! So soon, you ask? Yes. So soon. I got really excited to write up this chapter, and you might find some of your questions answered. Without further ado, let's get back into the world of New Age!**

 **Jango: I remember this one. Oh, I can't wait for this.**

 **Amber: We should get to the reviews before we forget...**

 **Me: That's right. Let's get to those.**

 **Amber: We're glad that you think the story is original, Phillip. Hopefully it will seem more so after things are explained more...**

 **Me: ...**

 **Jango: Hyper's staring at the other review.**

 **Amber: Hyperjade? What's the matter?**

 **Me: ...**

 **Jango: Ohhh, it's because of the 'boot blade' comment.**

 **Me: (stuttering) Boot blade! What!?**

 **Amber: That's more like a pirate name...**

 **Me: But... He was supposed to be more ominous and dangerous and ... But...**

 **Jango: ZLAXE broke him.**

 **Amber: Well, I guess I'm just going to have to respond... Look at him. He's in shock or something.**

 **Jango: If I knew that would do this to him, I would have said it the moment I read the chapter.**

 **Amber: Alright. Uh... Oh, not me, Amber, that Amber. Right. Uh... Matt? Can I talk about him?**

 **Jango: Hyperjade's not in a state to stop you.**

 **Amber: But... it's... Nevermind. Um... Jango, Don't say anything. In advance.  
**

 **Jango: Aww...**

 **Amber: A-anyways, I think he was talking about how Riley got beaten up so badly in one fluid move. I'm sure Hyper is happy to keep providing New Age. Anyways... Should we begin the chapter?**

 **Jango: That's the last review. Hyperjade got it in gear this time, so there wasn't time for any more people to stumble upon the chapter and review apparently.**

 **Me: ...Chapter start. (Mutters to myself quietly).**

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve: Choice: The forgotten concept**

Riley woke two days later. He found five girls hovering over him in a semicircle. "...Why do I keep waking up like this?" the redhead grumbled humorously "Alright. Roll call. Crazy eevee with a knack for destruction? Check. Pichu with the ribbon that's bigger than her main body? Check. Absol who can use static electricity to punish those who force her into a bath? Also check, and Yellow there, And the same type of person I assume I will see every time I get my ass kicked."

"Present." four of the five responded.

"Really, this time I have **five** girls hovering over me with concerned looks." he quipped "This is going to get old eventually."

They retreated, and Riley tried to sit up. "Ow." he muttered, feeling at his stomach where he had been slashed open "That hurts. Wow. That's… Particularly painful. I lost. **Again**."

"Not your fault." Amber assured him, pushing him back onto the bed with a paw. "The police could have been faster, Yellow could have helped. **We** could have-"

"Stop right there." Riley commanded, silencing the eevee. He didn't need to be able to sense the emotions of pokemon to know that she was cross with Yellow. "I told Yellow to run, and she obeyed. I told **you** lot to stay away, and Scarlet didn't in a moment of poorly timed bravery that nearly got her **killed**. If I was going to die, the lives of others would have been in danger if anybody helped. If I can't take down someone, I guarantee you that none of you can. Is anyone dead?"

"One of the officers who chased down your lookalike shot at him, and with a burst of speed, he reflected the bullet with his boot and made it ricochet straight into his head. He died quickly. The other one who shot him only got his bullet back into his shoulder." Yellow informed the boy.

"Takes experience and skill." Riley concluded.

"If he beat you, he has plenty of that." Amber replied stiffly. "I thought you promised Yellow you would get out of there if you started losing!" she selled, giving Riley a smack across the face.

The nurse moved to take Amber away, but Riley stopped her by grabbing her arm swiftly, strongly. "She's fine." Riley told her, while the woman stared astonished at his hand, which had moved with far more strength than he should have had with his heart pumping blood substitute through his arteries. "I **wasn't** losing, at least until that last moment. I had an advantage, and he proved to be way stronger than I was able to be. He did all of this to me in one fluid move."

The others did not know what to say to that. He hadn't had a chance to run away. "He tore my shirt." Riley muttered, having caught sight of the silver shirt hanging on a hook ahead of him "Slashed right through the metal."

"His boot was the same as your staff. Of **course** it tore through simple silver." Yellow said.

"How long until I'm out of here?"

"two weeks minimum." the nurse stated.

"So…"

"About five days or so." Yellow followed Riley's train of thought.

"Doesn't feel that bad. I reckon I could get up right now." Riley commented, pushing himself up, but was promptly overpowered by five females pushing him back down at once again.

" **You** aren't moving a muscle." Yellow scolded the boy "Just because you **can** does **not** mean you **should**."

"Aww…" Riley muttered, letting himself be pushed back down. "How many defeats is that? Three now?"

"Three." Amber nodded, a smirk on her face.

"It's okay, Riley!" Kurenai exclaimed, giving him a nuzzle "I'll stay with you!"

"So will I!" Scarlet cheered

"as will I" Yellow nodded.

"Meh. I guess." Amber muttered, giving him that smirk again.

"Thanks, guys." Riley responded cheerfully. He leaned over to Amber and whispered "Think you can figure out how to get me out of here?"

Yellow, pokemon mind reader as she was, instantly said "No.", bringing about a burst of laughter from Amber, and Riley chuckled as well.

"...What did you think of those books?" Riley asked Yellow.

"I'm sorry I checked that first one."

"Exactly."

* * *

A young boy stumbled through the woods. Blond hair flashed bright, reflecting the sun. His legs had scratches all over them. For the past two days, he had been wandering about. He had taken some food with him, but that had diminished.

This was looking to have been a serious mistake.

Two days ago, he had set out on his own, without the protection of a pokemon. Part of that was due to making his confession. Part of that was the result of that confession. He wanted something different. He wanted to live somehow else.

After Kurenai, the hatred of his family for the blatant destruction of their wealth that might have been avoided, and being shown a new light, the boy wanted to live in a way that would be… Right.

He had been being followed for two days. He kept turning, but there was nobody to be found. He was worried by that point. That had been a day and a half ago. A day and a half ago, he had backtracked and found something surprising.

"Deer!"

Matt stared uncomprehendingly at the duo in front of him. Deerling, they were, but those pokemon weren't native to Kanto. As far as he knew. "Um…" he muttered, uncertain of what to do. The two had curious looks about them, and something occurred to the boy. Here they were, in Kanto, in summer, but the deerling looked to be their spring and fall forms. Were they not supposed to match the seasons?

He almost told them to get lost, bother someone else, and caught himself. These were sentient creatures, right? He had always been taught otherwise, but a certain absol had proved him wrong. "Hello?" he finally asked.

"Deer! Ling!" they responded cheerfully. Matt saw two more deerling emerge from the foliage, of the winter and summer months. They were all greeting him.

"I'm sorry… I don't understand you." the boy admitted sadly. How he wished to understand their words after meeting people who could. They cocked their heads for a moment, and looked at each other. Matt sat down in the dirt and watched them. What could they possibly be thinking right now?

Finally, the group of four looked back to him. One of them, the autumn one, walked over in a certain direction, and gestured to him. "What do you want from me?" the boy asked, and the deerling quickly jolted her head in the direction that she was walking in, and looked back to the boy.

The emerald eyed boy took a wild guess. "Am I supposed to follow you?" he asked, and then the deerling nodded before she vanished into the foliage, and The boy followed her.

Now… A day and a half later, the familiar blonde boy with his emerald eyes was in a tree picking apples, as he had no food in his pack left. He came down, and fumbled a lot of the apples onto the ground. "Bugger." he cursed, picking many of them up. Winter came to assist him. he had named the deerlings after the season they represented, as they had not changed to match the current season. They seemed to like their names. Autumn and Summer were girls, Spring and Winter were boys.

"Thanks, Winter." he nodded and the little one gave a quick "Deer!" before bounding off with the two apples he could carry. They were teaching him how to get as much food as he needed in the wild, though he still doubted his decision.

While they ate, having found the others, The boy adjusted the collar of his now damaged shirt, which looked like it had been expensive to a degree. "I don't know where you are taking me." he half complained, half stated as fact.

"Ling! Deerling!"

the boy wished he could understand them.

They led him farther, for another day. And then Another. He had been living off of berries and apples for two days at this point, because that was what the deerling ate. He shoved down any craving for meat he had, as he did not know where some of the meat came from. Regular cows, or miltanks? Which had been harmed for his dinner?

Nothing now. The trees would bear more fruit with time. They finally reached a place that was not just trees, trees, and more trees. Granted, it was still all trees and shrubbery, but here, it was dense, the forest looked old, but full of life. The branches of the nearby two trees intertwines intricately to make a fancy doorway that led to absolutely nowhere.

"This is pretty." the boy commented, but then Spring walked through it, rippled, and vanished. Emerald eyes blinked at the magic trick Spring had just pulled, and the other deerling gestured him forward. Two trees in the middle of nowhere, intertwining branches to mimic a gateway, which the boy now approached.

He slowly moved his hand through it. The air rippled slightly. He got a determined look on his face and walked through. His surroundings shimmered and changed, becoming bright green. The azure sky contrasted with the brilliant green of the foliage, and red or brown tree trunks. A wonderful smell permeated the air, and the clearing was impressive. Plain, green grass stretched across the small clearing. As the boy looked about, a multitude of rippling noises drew his attention to see that the other three deerling had followed him.

Spring, well, sprung about around about a stump in the center of the clearing that had a large green jewel on it, about the size of a baseball and appearing to have infinite depth, energies of different green hues coming from the center to the edges.

The blonde approached it slowly, wondering why the four seasons had brought him here, but his answer came eventually. " _Hello, child."_ a voice rang out through his head. Female, sweet, and beautiful. That was the voice. The boy, surprised, swiftly turned to find the source of it.

But there was nothing save the beauty of the clearing and the smell worthy of the world's most versatile garden. " _You will not find me by looking, child_ " the voice proclaimed, as the boy began calming down.

"Who are you?"

" _Who I am is unimportant as of now. I have but one question for you."_ The voice returned " _I know of your life, having been in a wealthy family. Recently, that life has changed, because you began to understand that you had been misled for much of your life."_

"Yeah."

" _And you desire change as a result of it."_

"Yes."

" _And I have one question that I wish to ask you."_ The voice told him.

"...What is it?"

" _To what extend do you desire change?"_

The boy closed his eyes. What did he want to change? There was only one thing he felt was really missing, as well as one thing that he had but felt that… he no longer wanted. Matt opened his eyes. "I want to understand pokemon, and I wish for a new life." he requested

He felt warmth. " _That is something many wish for, and for me, there are no two things I would rather give. Please, child, hold the jewel."_

Matt inched forward. He hesitantly brought his hand near the gemstone, which, looking closer, he saw hovered an inch above the wood surface. He, after a look at the four seasons of deerlings, closed his hand around the sphere.

His hand felt warm. The item glowed with a brilliant green light, emerald and verdant colors whirling around the boy in streams. He was frightened, and tried to release the warm stone, but he could not unclapse his hand.

He stepped back, as the streams of energy began to converge on him and absorb into the center of his chest. He was freaking out because it was doing something to him, he felt it, but at the same time it felt warm, comforting. It scared him because he was changing.

It was difficult to differentiate between pain and that warmth, like the warmth was in an attempt to hide that pain. He dropped to one knee, watching his hand that held the orb. He watched in a mix of horror and wonder as The hand that held the orb started gathering black fur, sprouting from his hand, the effect spreading very slowly. He couldn't let go of the ball. A white line traced from the sides of his hand, moving around his fingers and such. Seen from above, it looks as though his hand with black fur is outlined by white. That white grew out slightly, becoming tougher.

His arm locked up painfully as the fur spread up to his elbow, and the warmth spread further. A structure spread from the white on his hand, making a tough portion of his body extend out like a gauntlet from his arm. He looked at the rest of his hand, which had lost the white portion and just had black fur. The transformation began to be faster as the streams of green energy swarmed around him like a whirlwind. A mystic tune seemed to play as fur raced along his arm and to his chest, where blue fur became prevalent.

The fur was thick and long around his chest, under which was more white, though it was fur this time. Black fur was spreading from under the slight amount of white down, which he knew as he checked under his shirt. "What are you doing to me!?" he cried out finally, beginning to majorly panic. His other arm got the same treatment that his right arm had. Like having a large pointed hoof stick out directly over the back of his hand like a gauntlet, which started from the elbow.

The boy cried out as his legs reconfigured themselves painfully, and his shoes were promptly destroyed. He looked down in alarm to see that the base of his feet had gained an outline of the white, and was tougher. The same thing appeared around his lower leg like what was going from his elbow to the back of his hand, acting like tough shin guards or something. The fur was black still; the only blue fur was in his upper body, the white inverted 'V' separated the blue and black blue fur directly above the white line elongated and spread out, pointing in nearly opposite directions, while the rest of his neck and face sprouted blue fur with the exception of white lines from his nose to his head and the bases of his eyes to his head. His hair shortened very slightly, and became mostly white.

The boy was forced to close his eyes as pain shot through them, and they opened as a blue color with 'X's rather than pupils. Finally, he clutched his head as a multitude of antlers erupted from his skull, growing and changing until they were different colors, mirroring each other side to side in the colors orange, red, purple, and teal blue from front to back, four antlers on each side.

The sphere disappeared into his body, and the boy lost his strength, collapsing on the ground as a final pain spiked near his tailbone, and then there was only warmth again. Matt pushed himself slowly, painfully to his feet again; he was still humanoid for the most part. "What… The hell… Did you **do** to me!?" Matt exclaimed, staggering back before falling and landing on his back… And tail.

The boy scrambled to a tree and held his back to it, shaking as he looked at his hand. A brilliant glow shined in his face, and a silhouette appeared. "Hello, child." the woman's voice said, this time not in his mind "I see you are… Afraid… of your new form."

"Of course I'm fucking afraid!" Matt snapped "I want to know what you've done to me!"

"If you calm yourself, I can explain it to you." the being said, stepping out of the glow to reveal a large deer-like creature, with black fur across most of it's body, and generally looked very similar to how Matt looked now.

Matt checked behind him, knowing that same kind of tail would be there. It most certainly was. He looked back. "Why should I care about an explanation? I answered a question, and get turned into this! Why shouldn't I be afraid? Why should I be calm!?"

"Because that form is not permanent." the legendary explained. Matt stilled and looked at her questioningly. The pokemon continued. "You are connected to me by the item you bonded with, my jewel of life. You share power with me now. Many of the legendaries have someone bonded to them. Most of their powers differ from each other, though they have much in common with the being they joined with." she explained "but their power that primarily differs between us is that with practice, you can change your form at will. Many of your kind could change between your mixed state and your human state, though with my power, you can change into those as well as becoming a fully fledged xerneas."

"..." Matt said nothing for a while. He wasn't stuck like this… As long as he knew what he was doing. He would have to learn how to change back… He supposed from this pokemon. "Why did you only speak with telepathy before?" he finally asked, changing the subject.

"for several reasons." Xerneas replied "First, you had not bonded with my item yet, and had you known if my existence and this location, you might have gone to other humans with that information. I am sure you understand how little a pokemon would trust you before this point."

Matt looked down.

"Secondly, I can properly speak to you now because you bonded with my jewel of life. Any pokemon that speaks to you, you can hear them in your own language. Your connection to me makes it so, and as such my language sounds like yours when spoken."

"It just translates? Just like that?" Matt asked, and looked to the deerling, who were watching silently, in awe.

"Yes." Xerneas said, before chuckling to herself "Just like that. You wished to understand pokemon, and you wished for a new life. I have given you both, and in return have given myself an acquaintance, if you will stay and learn from me."

" _Mutually beneficial, hmm?"_ Matt thought to himself.

"That would be another thing I have not told you yet." Xerneas mused, causing the boy to sweatdrop.

"Are my thoughts not private!?"

"If you keep thinking so loud, no." Xerneas teased the boy playfully.

"Gah!" Matt thrust his hands up in the air, accidentally striking his own horns and throwing his head back. "Ow." he complained "That really hurt." Then something seemed to occur to the boy.

"It translates automatically, you said? I hear pokemon in my own language?" he clarified.

"Yes, child. Why?"

Matt looked surprised. "That means… Hang on…" he muttered. Xerneas nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Finally, Matt seemed to recover. "Though I think you could have given me some sort of warning, or something, I think this is going to work for the both of us."

Xerneas smiled. "I am glad that we can agree on this, Child of Life."

Matt now raised an eyebrow. "Child of life? What does that mean?"

"It is a title given to those bonded with a legendary." Xerneas explained "'child of' followed by the element that the legendary and their bonded human share. You are not related to me in blood, however. Only in the power and connection we share."

Matt stared at the creature. From one title to the next, hmm? He had already made the effort to think 'quietly', because he needed some things to be private. Now it was like going from a rich family to a royal family.

"I believe you should be getting used to your empowered state by now, yes?" Xerneas now pointed out, as Matt realized that he ha no idea what he was doing.

"Uh… Right!"

* * *

"You are **not** going back to Viridian." Riley growled, pacing back and forth. Yellow was not happy with him at the moment, evidenced by the look on her face.

"Riley, I know I was afraid, but I can take care of myself!"

"I told you to run. Because you couldn't take care of it" he shot back "Yellow, this guy looks just like me, is several times stronger than me, is faster than me, and is not afraid to turn your skull into mush. He came out of nowhere, and he will again. You **can't** take care of yourself."

Yellow was flabbergasted. "I am **not** going to talk about this! What makes you think my own safety matters? I don't care! I don't want you getting yourself killed! I can't watch you lying on a hospital bed again!" she shouted at him, furious.

Riley rounded on her, quite angry. "Why do you think I told you to run away!?" he roared at her, making her step back. "I refuse to sit by and watch you get yourself killed. I would gladly give my life to protect people around me. You keep apologizing for not sending your pokemon out to help me, when all they would have done is get themselves hurt. Or killed!"

Yellow stepped back again, and Riley continued his rant. "What makes you think I would ever choose myself over you, or Amber, or Scarlet, or Kurenai!? Anybody!? No! I would rather die than watch you get hurt because **I** wasn't good enough to save you!"

"I don't want you to get yourself killed either!" Yellow screamed at him in response "I will not stick around only to watch you die!"

Riley growled animalistically. "This isn't your decision, Yellow." he growled at her "I'm taking charge. It's about time I made a few decisions here."

"No."

"We don't discuss this!" Riley exclaimed, furious.

"I'm free to do as I please." Yellow countered, having found a path to victory. "I need to do my job, and you can't stop me from doing my job. It's law; no official can take deliberate steps to halt a worker or other official from doing their job. It's a bit wordier than that, but by law, you have no choice but to let me go back to my job in Viridian. That job is secret, and it would be very difficult to find me. Furthermore, I would have bodyguards to protect me. Well trained ones, and more than one of them. They aren't the police; it's their **job** to lay down their lives for who they protect. Unlike the police. Unlike **you**. A large amount of people with guns firing at once, disregarding whether he deflects the bullets at them or not. He **will** go down."

"And who are these people!?"

"Government sanctioned soldiers with the express purpose of defending the gym leaders and other high officials of each and every region." Yellow explained impatiently "The most elite of the elite; the men, and women, who both protect and follow the gym leaders into battle."

"So how are **you** going to be guarded by them?" Riley asked, before looking at her again. Yellow had not stood so strongly in a long time like that. She glared at him with a strength that matched his physical strength, though this was a mental strength.

"Think about it." she told him, before walking out of the room.

Riley cursed. He started pacing again. "She'll come to say goodbye." Kurenai told him, having watched the entire thing. This argument had pretty much been going on for the week that Riley had been forced to stay in bed. Now that he had properly flabbergasted the nurse with his faster healing, he was able to argue properly, and Yellow had just smoked him with her own argument.

"You can't just drag her where you want her to go." Scarlet reasoned, having chosen to avoid being in the range of the aura of anger that anyone could feel between the two humans.

"That's what I hate about it." Riley muttered, looking at the pichu "Yellow's life is in danger, and I have to keep walking around the region like an idiot, waiting for the call that she's gotten her throat slashed, not to mention by somebody who looks just like me!"

Amber practically appeared on his shoulder. "You could go with her." Amber pointed out.

"It wouldn't accomplish anything. Other people get in my way when I try to fight to my fullest potential." Riley pointed out "if I went with her, it would be a repeat of a week ago, maybe less fortunate. If she stayed, it would also be a repeat of a week ago. If she and I separate, I'm not there and **she** dies. There is nothing I can do about it… and if she was trapped in a building, me getting myself killed by that asshole would lead to her being trapped by him. I can't win!" he roared, kicking away a penny on the sidewalk.

Riley slumped against the wall of the nearest building, sitting on the ground. "If that copycat finds her, she's dead…" he moaned. The girls moved to comfort him, staying close; even Amber did not have a light wisecrack for this one.

"I don't know what to do…" Riley murmured, putting his head into his crossed arms. Neither did the pokemon at his side. Neither did the pedestrians who were listening in. The street moved back into the bustling activity it had that had seemed to quiet down as the two had their argument.

Everyone wanted the girl to be safe, but Yellow was more concerned about him, and used the law itself to deflect his attempt to lay down his life for her. At the cost of her own life if he found her. Furthermore, Riley had no idea where this doppelganger was and who he actually was, and no higher official in the police department would give him that information, fearing he would seek him out and get hurt.

"...Is there really nothing we can do?" Scarlet asked. It seemed so.

"..." Riley said nothing for a while, trying to find a way around this and failing miserably. That, and she didn't seem to want him around for her sake. She didn't seem to want him around at all. Finally, he raised his eyes. "...I guess we continue on. Alone. We know how, technically." he murmured "if she stays hidden, she'll be alright."

"...Alright." Amber nodded. Kurenai pressed against his side to comfort the boy. "Should we go south or east?"

"East, I think." Scarlet remembered "They wanted somebody to check on the pokemon in the power plant."

Riley leaped up. "Good! I can be surrounded by pokemon again. Like i'm supposed to be." he exclaimed. He looked side to side. "Let's find Yellow, say goodbye to her, and get out of this freaking city"

"Library books." Amber hissed at him. Riley paled. he had forgotten!

"...After that." he nodded, and looked at the density of the people around. "Ready to run?"

"Parkour time!" Scarlet and Amber cheered together.

Ten minutes later, Millicent looked up from her book at her desk, almost as if called, to see a familiar boy literally drop in front of the door, as if he had fallen from the sky. She sweatdropped. That guy never sat still, huh? At least, not when doing non-library related things.

The absol caught up to him as he walked through the door with the remaining books. While Kurenai panted from the effort, Scarlet and Amber tried to smooth their fur down. Their fur always got fluffed up when they went sailing through the air.

"I'm tired…" Kurenai complained as she flopped onto the carpet and continued panting "You run really fast."

"Are you kidding? That was practically flying!" Scarlet exclaimed.

"Anyways." Riley told Millicent, bringing the books forward "I nearly forgot to bring these back before I bolted."

"Bolted where?"

"Off to the power plant to analyze the population of the pokemon there." Riley explained "Made slightly more difficult without my pokemon mind reading companion."

Millicent checked the books in quickly, not wanting to get into that subject. The boy sounded frustrated now. "Have a good one." she said "And… Here's my number."

Riley frowned. "Uh… what for?"

"I don't know. I just felt the need to." Millicent shrugged.

Riley started to mutter, nearly inaudible "Really, why is it I am surrounded by girls at all times? The only guy I actually constantly talked with stayed in Pewter." he muttered, before picking up the slip of paper and that library card, putting them away while continuing to mutter about being utterly surrounded by girls. "I think i'm giving Growlithe a call after all of this." he continued, walking out of the building "Thanks, by the way."

"No problem." Millicent responded. Why had she given her number away? She didn't know. It just felt right. The idea just… Popped into her head.

Or maybe she thought that the boy about her age was handsome. He certainly was strong. one of the two.

* * *

Growlithe heard the phone first, and barked loudly to attract the attention of his owner. Cassidy quickly looked around the corner at the phone on the table, before moving to check on it. "It's been a solid week." she muttered, picking it up. "You usually call more often than this."

"Who is it?" he asked, moving forward. Cassidy gave the phone a smile. "he's right here. Maybe explain to **him** why you've called so late."

Cassidy got the little phone stand that she kept around and propped the phone onto it, setting it on the floor for Growlithe, who could look at it at the right angle and see who it was. The dog pokemon was overjoyed. "Riley" he exclaimed. it had indeed been a while since he last called "where **have** you been?"

"Oh, you know…" he muttered, rubbing his neck After studying, the last time I called you…"

"You looked half dead that time." Growlithe quipped.

"Haha… I may have followed up by **actually** being half dead and bedridden for a week."

"...What?"

"Got in a fight with this asshole who was trying to kill Yellow. He kicked my ass even more than Zach did."

" **What**?"

"and nearly bled out while the guy was failing to find Yellow, who had fun when I told her to."

" **What!?** "

"Oh, and the bastard looks almost exactly like me."

" **WHAT!?** "

"Yeah." Riley nodded "I'm fine though. he only slashed my stomach open. Deeply, but whatever."

Growlithe could not believe his ears. The guy was talking about it like it was **nothing**! he almost **died**!? "Why are you so calm!?" he demanded.

"I'm not being calm. I'm terrified this lookalike is going to kill Yellow." Riley explained "But I'm trying to talk to a friend instead so that my head doesn't explode with worry. Especially since Yellow is going back to Viridian and expects me to continue doing my thing, and there's nothing I can do about it."

"The law that an official can't force another official or worker to stay away from their job?" Growlithe remembered that particular lesson. Riley nodded.

"You got it right. She called me out on that, and because I am technically an official, part of the police force, I can't order her to stay away from the gym that she apparently works at. I dunno, maybe she's one of those gym trainers or something."

"Maybe." Growlithe replied.

"Hey, Kurenai was getting herself covered in mud the last time we spoke. Want to meet her?" Riley offered. Growlithe gave a nod. Riley had mostly been searching through books against a tree, having mentioned Kurenai, but he had claimed she wouldn't be recognizable under all the mud. A few seconds later, an absol moved into frame.

"Hi!" she greeted him cheerfully.

"Are you going to be surrounded by females your entire life?" Growlithe deadpanned immediately. Kurenai and Riley pouted simultaneously.

"Rude…" she muttered.

"I know." Riley nodded "I'm going insane."

"hey!" Amber shouted, though Scarlet seemed to understand perfectly.

"Rude!" Kurenai exclaimed, looking at him. .

"Hello, Amber, Scarlet." Growlithe greeted them "Hello, Kurenai."

"Hi!" Kurenai exclaimed, insult forgotten.

"..." nobody said anything for a moment. "Well…" Riley muttered.

"That achieved nothing." Growlithe finished for him. The guys gave each other a grin. "I am currently **not** going insane. Lucky me, I know. Things have turned out far better than they could have. I was incredibly lucky that Cassidy and my father are both still around, despite what I believed, as well as being fortunate that the experimentation the rockets took on me was not fatal."

Riley laughed. Oh yeah, how's that pink fire treating you?" he asked, making the growlithe growl at him. Riley chuckled for a bit. "That bad, hmm?"

"Ever since Cassidy learned that it exuded more heat than my normal flames, she's been asking me to use it left and right. I finally had to make a point by just using a **normal** flamethrower when she asked for that horrid pink one."

"Exchanging power for dignity." Riley nodded "Sensible."

"She got it, thankfully. If she didn't know that pokemon were sentient before we came around, she would have done by the time you left."

"Good. One more for the list of people to trust." Riley nodded.

"Of course." Growlithe began, but he was interrupted by his father. Arcanine appeared looming over the smaller pokemon, playing a menacing look. The effect for Riley was seeing a large shadow with eyes reflecting red light looming over his friend.

The extreme fluffiness of the arcanine species ruined the image, so he only got a few laughs for his effort. The older dog huffed and greeted Riley, who gave a respectful nod. "Arcanine." the boy greeted him.

"Hey" Arcanine returned. "Been treating yourself properly?"

"Nope."

"Figures" Arcanine grumbled from what I heard of Growlite talking to you, you made more enemies."

"It's difficult to describe him as an enemy of mine. In the sense of how dangerous he is, yes." Riley explained.

"...but?"

"But he wasn't after me at all. His only target was Yellow; I was just in his way. The guy seems to be practically mindless. I do consider him my enemy because he's got Yellow in his sights." Riley elaborated.

"That sounds bad"

"It's really bad. To understate it massively." Riley added.

"There is nothing you can do?" Growlithe asked.

"I hate it, but Yellow had a point. She has defenses, and anybody else fighting makes it harder for me to function in battle. I need space to fight properly. I would have gotten killed, and there was no guarantee that my sacrifice would actually keep her alive… She's straight up told me that there are better protectors anyways." Riley responded. His eyes gained a shadow over them.

Growlithe flinched. Riley was beating himself up because he wasn't good enough. Again. Every time he lost, or was told he was bad, he became this way. Trying to convince the boy that he was **not** useless was pointless.

The equivalent of a death trap that nobody who knew the boy bothered to venture into.

"Well, you had best get on." Growlithe told him "You have your job, and Cassidy will be bringing us on another investigation."

Riley brightened and nodded. "Good luck, old friend." he said. The call went dead. Growlithe sighed and picked up the phone in his mouth and brought it back to Cassidy, who had gone to do some paperwork.

Arcanine huffed aloud to get the young investigator's attention. She walked over and accepted the phone from Growlithe, giving both dog pokemon scratches behind the ears. After both were satisfied, she got her things ready and prepared to head out. Leather jacket and everything.

"Well, we have a few things to handle today besides paperwork. Shall we go?" Cassidy asked them.

"Of course!" Arcanine rumbled fondly, picking Growlithe up by the scruff. "Shall I carry my small fry of a son so we can go faster?"

"Dad!"

"Heh…" he muttered through Growlithe's fur, before dropping his son down to the ground. Growlithe gave him a smack on the snout with his paw, causing Arcanine to chuckle, before father and son followed their owner out of the building.

* * *

At the same time, the used-to-be blonde was trying to grow things as instructed by Xerneas. He huffed in annoyance as the sapling he had his palm extended towards stopped growing. It had been moving slowly anyways.

"This is extremely…" Matt muttered, thinking 'pointless' for a moment but realizing that the legendary had some reason to have him do this. He tried to find a new word for it. "Slow." he finally decided.

"Every learning process is slow." Xerneas stepped up next to the boy, looking down at the sapling "And you have been improving."

"It's been nearly a week." Matt complained "and I've gotten exactly one quarter of… Not a tree, but a **sapling**."

"Patience, child." she chided "You seem to have grown accustomed to your new form, which was a challenge in itself. Even if you still throw your arms up in exasperation. The only thing keeping you from damaging your arms are the hooflike extensions from your elbow to the back of your hand."

"When will you be teaching me to take my human form again?"

"Once you've actually grown a tree with your powers. You need to learn how to properly expend your energy." Xerneas replied calmly.

"You can't read my mind and figure out what I'm doing wrong?" Matt asked irritably. Xerneas gave a hearty chuckle to that one.

"Oh, I lied about being able to do that." she responded, sounding pleased with herself. Matt whirled on her, a most displeased look on his face.

"Xerneas, you said what I was thinking aloud numerous times!"

"Only when it was obvious what you were thinking." Xerneas admitted "Forgive me, I have been in constant contact with beings higher than I who like their pranks plenty. Some of that rubbed off on me. It is easy for me to find amusement in your ramblings as you conplain about how your feet work differently now."

"Like having armored plates fused into the skin and acting almost like clunky boots that are hard to maneuver properly in…" Matt muttered, getting off topic.

"You have done well for about a week of effort." the legendary pokemon praised him "now, once you know how to control the flow of energy you have, it will be far easier to transform yourself. I cannot tell you how long it shall take for you to accomplish this."

Matt nodded slowly. He had come to see eventually that Xerneas always had a good reason to have him do what he was doing, and asked for nothing that would be unreasonable to ask for. In short, she was a good person to have around, as a teacher of course.

"One more thing." Matt started, turning around and pointing his palm at the sapling "Who are these higher beings you mentioned?"

Xerneas chuckled that warm chuckle again. "They are extremely powerful." she began "So much so that they avoid being involved in common affairs much of the time, or at least they are supposed to, to avoid destroying anything or everything important."

"...Who you said like pranks. Wonderful."

"They do. At least, the guardian of magic does. The guardian of life enjoys them at times as well, though she does not actively search for people to play jokes on." Xerneas replied "Those are the two that have often visited me over recent years."

"What pokemon are they?"

"They aren't."

Matt looked at her weirdly. "What? They aren't pokemon?"

"No. Interestingly enough, they are human. They visit me from time to time, checking up on recent events and making sure everything is running smoothly." Xerneas revealed.

Matt blinked. Humans that were more powerful than god pokemon? He'd thought he'd never see the day. "Life and Magic." he muttered "Like your strengths?" he asked, knowing, as Xerneas had told him, that she was accomplished with magic and primarily bore the element of life.

"Like **our** strengths." Xerneas corrected the boy "you bear the same abilities as I hold, now. And you are becoming far more accomplished at those abilities by the day."

"Huh?" Matt inquired, wondering how he could possibly be getting better, and checked on his sapling. The plant had doubled in size while he was distracted talking to Xerneas. "...Alright." Matt muttered. Xerneas gave one of her warm chuckles again and looked at the plant.

"Do you actually know the level of energy you used?" she asked, eyes sparkling with the effect that she knew something that the boy did not.

"...No." Matt admitted. He had grown used to that look. She had given it to him a dozen times a day, it seemed, perhaps more. Being uninformed wasn't fun. At least it held learning value.

"You have grown wiser to the world in this past week." Xerneas told him "while you occasionally make assumptions about pokemon you meet that reflect your previous life, that has lessened over time. You learn quickly, and gain ground quickly. By the time the two guardians come to visit me again like old friends, as they are, you will be ready to meet them. I guarantee it."

"Thank you."

"As such, with that growing wisdom and experience, what have you gleaned from this experience?"

Matt looked to the sapling again. He puzzled over it for a while before muttering to himself for another while. Finally, he looked at Xerneas.

"Perhaps the energy required for this is actually pretty low and using too much energy causing the energy to not gather within the plant?" Matt asked "Which would mean I am overdoing it?"

Xerneas smiled. "You certainly do learn quickly." she complimented him "Growing plants and giving life must be a calm, slow process. Otherwise, the life energy flows outward away from your target, and is absorbed by everything around you. This is useful for accelerating the growth of the entire area slowly, but for focusing on a single plant, the being won't absorb the life energy properly if you do not use the correct amounts of life energy in it's execution."

Her explanation stuck within the boy's mind. He looked to the sapling, and pointed his open palm at it once more. Instead of pushing the energy, he imagined a stream of life flowing consistently from his palm, in small amounts. A stream just like one of those that had turned him into a xerneas-human mix.

The effect was impressive. Leaves began forming, the plant began growing to about his height, where it slowed considerably until it stopped. "You will do very well in life learning so quickly, Child of Life." Xerneas decided "That is faster than I myself learned to grow individual plants."

"...Did it stop because it's bigger and needs more life energy to grow?" Matt asked, and sent more power into his palm. Nothing.

"no." Xerneas shook her head "the effect has lessened because to grow the tree, you also must have water and sunlight, and that life energy can only boost the process. Once it grows as such, using water from the ground and sunlight from above, the plant can be accelerated again. I cannot grow an entire forest in a night for this reason. Additional life energy accelerates the growth, but cannot do so on it's own."

Matt lowered his hand, letting it flop down to his pant leg. He had decided to keep his pants, though his shirt had to go because of the large amount of fur directly on his chest was getting in the way and generated a lot of heat under clothing.

"...I don't know whether I like this form yet." he admitted.

Xerneas had come to understand that she had frightened the boy very much with the unexplained transformation. She had apologized for not giving the explanation he had desired beforehand, though she had explained that there was no guarantee that he would choose such a thing if he was changed. The thing keeping the boy from being truly angry was the promise that he could regain his human form once he had control of his energy. "...This form has much more access to life energy than your human form, though you can still manipulate it slightly in your human form." she explained _"And you look less… boyish with that look as well."_ she continued in her mind.

"It's more about having lived as a human my whole life." Matt explained "and now I'm this mix of xerneas and human, and I'm not exactly feeling so legendary about it."

Xerneas gave her sweet smile. "You're feeling alright enough to make puns." she pointed out. Matt scoffed; he was indeed being humorous about it. The shock had mostly warn off.

"If sleeping wasn't a massive pain, I might be fine." he quipped. Unlike Xerneas, he had to sleep against something like a tree so that his horns weren't interfering with the angle of his neck. At least he never seemed to feel stiff in the morning. "Getting sap in my fur isn't fun at all."

"Then find something better to lean on." she muttered in response "You'd think after a week you would figure out how to tell which trees will leave a lot of sap on you and which won't."

Matt blinked and looked around. "Huh?" he asked "Some of them don't ooze sap all over me? I can stop trying to-" he was silenced by Xerneas chuckling at him again. "What're you laughing at?"

"You grew so excited for just a moment." she chuckled "Like a boy surrounded by new things."

"I don't want sap stuck in my fur!"

"Hm-hm-hm…" Xerneas continued laughing at him. He scowled and walked over to different types of trees, taking a good look at them. Most of them had parts with sap oozing from them. He kept checking until he found a white tree with easily peelable bark. It was as dry as a bone.

"I've been around this thing for a week, and I never slept on it…" he muttered, banging his head on it once before backing away and returning to the deer like pokemon that was Xerneas.

"No use sitting around doing nothing." Xerneas decided "let us take a walk, shall we?"

Matt was surprised. "You haven't let me out of here for a week. What's going on?""

Xerneas looked at him. "It's about time you looked again at the human world, just to see humans in the light you now see the world from. It can be quite beautiful."

"Um…" Matt whispered, holding his pointer finger up in the air "I kind of don't look like anything else on the planet right now. We're going into the midst of humans with me like this? And won't humans try to catch you?"

"I did say that I was gifted with magic, as are you." Xerneas reminded the boy. "a thought command can easily translate into invisibility for the both of us, along with being unheard."

"Oh." Matt murmured, rubbing the back of his neck and bumping one of his antlers again, causing his head to jerk again. "Curses!" he yelled, feeling the jolt of pain from his antlers.

"Hm-hm-hm…"

"Oh shut up."

Xerneas stepped ahead of Matt, walking towards the entrance of their little home and shimmered out of existence as she passed through it. Matt gave another look at the beautiful place he had been practically reborn in, and followed his teacher.

Ten minutes of walking through the forest later, Matt had a question for Xerneas. "Hey, what are the other legendaries like?"

Xerneas opened her mouth to answer, but a certain set of deerlings burst through the undergrowth to catch up with them. Spring, winter, Summer, Autumn. The two beings smiled at them as they went to play with Matt again; they had come and gone, becoming good friends with the xerneas-human hybrid.

"Hey guys." Matt greeted them with a wave of his hand, striking his antlers **again** "Gah…"

"Hey! I'm a girl! Summer and Autumn exclaimed in unison.

"Hey, guys and girls." Matt corrected himself "How have you been?"

"Great!" Spring exclaimed

"Nothing new happened." Winter informed him

"The usual." Summer informed him, her usual carefree nature showing in her tone.

"Though one of the apple trees was suddenly surrounded by bug types. We can't get past them." Autumn said.

Matt sweatdropped. "They couldn't find a more opportune place? At all?" he asked.

"Nope." they all replied.

Xerneas sighed. "We may take a detour and attempt to ask them to find a different home. They do not eat the apples anyhow."

"Fine with me." Matt shrugged. He wasn't keen on going to visit human civilization just yet. He didn't know how to appear human again for goodness sakes.

"To answer your question, Matt, the legendary pokemon are all different in terms of personality. Well, mostly. We often meet as a group, us legendaries, though we will only take those we have bonded with once most of us have chosen a human to connect to, or have chosen not to connect at all."

"Do the other connected humans meet each other?"

"On occasion. You might say that the personalities of the legendaries can be gleaned from how they raise the human they connect to. Dialga for example, did not so much as see the child until he had knowledge and understanding of the world. I personally believe he did not know how to raise someone, and feared creating a sense of superiority in the child."

Matt was silent for a while. "One more question…" he murmured "Why take us on at all?"

Xerneas hummed in thought. "Throughout recent years, the legendary pokemon have grown very involved in human life, having appeared before them more often. A series of events happened, surrounding certain humans, that led to more events occurring." she explained "and as resentment for legendaries arose at the near destruction we caused on occasion, Arceus decided that it may be best to have a direct connection to the human society if we so chose."

"What," Matt asked "in case they needed someone to advocate for them?"

"Perhaps…" Xerneas murmured "though I personally believe that the purpose is to teach powerful humans the true nature of pokemon, and as that information is spread, for the protection of pokemon. Perhaps people like you can help us bring about a certain equality between species… Someday."

Matt swallowed. "That's… heavy." he murmured "I don't know how I could possibly go about that."

"it will be a difficult task. One you do not have to undertake just yet." the legendary assured Matt "I do not know whether that will be necessary at all… but Arceus mentioned it as an idea, which implied that she thought it could be a good idea anyhow, and… Having someone to teach is nice."

Matt blinked now. "Uh…" he uttered, uncertain of how to respond to that last bit. "Well…"

Xerneas looked at him, now worried. "...Do you think less of me?" she asked.

"No!" Matt quickly assured her "Not at all! You've been a great help, Xerneas. you've done so much for me, helping me, giving me a new life… I don't deserve **any** of it, yet you gave it to me. You've been kind, generous…" he started to gush "...I-I mean I don't want you to worry. I just didn't know how to respond to the compliment."

Now Xerneas was at a loss for words. The female continued walking through the forest. Unused to compliments… She had felt that once upon a time. It had happened the first day she had met the guardian of life. Oh, she had known of the existence of the guardians, but she had expected them to be more of an authority, someone everyone else must obey, but when she stood there, trying to decide whether to be as polite as possible in greeting the girl, or to bow like the servant she must be in front of this deity above all others in the entire multiverse.

but she had told Xerneas simply "I am not one to be worshipped." and she had explained that she actually hated it when people treated her as if she was higher than them.

" _Please don't bow. I hate bowing. I am not one to be worshipped. People are willing to treat me like the deity to surpass all others, but I am simply life itself. I don't want to be worshipped. Frankly, I hate it. Treat me as your equal, and I shall treat you as mine."_

Her message had been surreal coming from a being with infinite power. she had meant it, however, and Xerneas and the human girl quickly became friends as Xerneas began to understand what she meant by that.

"...That was a tad random." Matt commented. Xerneas looked somewhat panicky.

"Did I say that aloud!?" she exclaimed.

Matt laughed. "No."

The god pokemon jabbed at him with one of her hooves. "Come off it. You're not a mind reader either."

The two shared a good laugh before continuing on their way. Xerneas had in fact said that all aloud, which Matt had misinterpreted. however, Xerneas quickly explained herself. "What I was muttering was what the guardian of life told me when I first met her." she explained.

"You seem to follow along the same lines." he commented "Had you not said anything, I wouldn't have known you didn't say it." Xerneas blinked. Was she really so similar to life itself? Should she consider that to be a good thing? Now she was at a loss for words.

"I… I am honored that you would equate me with the guardian of life…" Xerneas finally thanked him. Matt rubbed his neck.

"Huh?" he asked cluelessly.

" _He wasn't even thinking of the guardian of life at all."_ Xerneas noted. "Nothing, I suppose." she murmured, passing the boy by. He picked up the pace to catch up as the apple tree in question appeared in their view.

It had kakunas and weedles all over it. Beedrills flew about quickly. Many gave their buzzing noise when they saw the intruders. "Leave!" the called as a whole, preparing their large stingers. "Leave now!"

"They sure made their home quickly." Matt noticed, looking to Xerneas. He decided to follow her lead, and take action in the way that she would. She knew what she was doing in relation to pokemon like these beedrills.

"Yes." Xerneas agreed. She stepped forward. "Hello, all." she greeted the bug types around the particularly large apple tree. "This tree is a source of food for all the pokemon nearby" she explained to them "Please find a new home for your family. There is a suitable tree a distance from my left. I ask this because you do not need the apples, while other pokemon do."

" _I would step aside for that."_ Matt thought " _Nowadays, at least."_ However, the boy was to be disappointed. The beedrill readied the spikes on the ends of two of their legs for battle.

"Leave, now!" They cried out, rushing forward. Matt yelped and ducked away from the first strike, one of the stingers glowing purple.

"Xerneas!" Matt cried out, backing away from the bug type "I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

The beedrill in front of him was slammed away by his teacher, who had used her horns to bad the enemy away.

"We cannot stay here." She told him. He picked himself up and ran, Xerneas keeping the beedrill off of the both of them.

" _Damn, I hate being useless!"_ Matt yelled in his thoughts. Quite suddenly, a few stray rounds of poison sting needles dug themselves in his shoulder. The pain was far more immense than it should have been; the boy yelped and tripped on an incredibly inconvenient root.

Xerneas saw the boy falling, and made a quick decision. The god hooked her antlers with his and slung the boy onto her back with skillful aim before pelting away to get the boy to safety. She had protected herself from the poisonous attacks, but the boy was inexperienced.

Matt groaned once they were away. "What's… Happening… To me?" He muttered.

"Poison." Xerneas explained grimly "we are both of the fairy type; poison harms us with ease."

She stopped moving, reached around, and pulled Matt off of her back to the ground. Quickly, before his ailment grew worse, she poured energy into his wounds. The purple lines around his veins faded away as the technique cured his poison affliction.

"Th-thank you, Xerneas…" The boy mumbled "I-I wasn't good enough to help…"

Xerneas shook her head. "Beedrill can be particularly stubborn." she muttered "I should have known not to take you there. Our type is weak to poison, so much so that an average poison attack will burn at our skin. It was irresponsible of me. You will be fine here, so I shall head the swarm off to a different tree on my own and return."

Matt nodded weakly, sitting up slowly. Inside, he was glad that Xerneas did not blame him for the mistake. Xerneas left him to do her job, and Matt found himself pondering his existence again. How quickly his life had turned. One day after Yellow and he were brought to Viridian, his family raced to fight the battle against the lawsuit.

Matt saw instantly that it was a lost cause. Kurenai would be evidence enough to justify sending officers to investigate the properties owned by his family, and then there would be too much incriminating evidence to fight. Now Matt had to make his decision.

So when Yellow was contemplating whether to bring Riley and Kurenai about to end things quickly, Matt had to consider what he had learned. He felt betrayed; betrayed by his family, having been misled and misinformed all of his life about the true nature of pokemon. At the same time, he envied Yellow, and Riley, for being able to understand pokemon.

How much had changed in his life in two days time. Once Matt realized that much of his education at home had been a lie, aside from subjects not related to pokemon, he realized that he did not want to be that person any longer. He wanted to change.

Thus, Yellow was suitably surprised when the boy told her that he would be confessing to his crimes and testifying against his family.

He had seen the girl actually become conflicted for a moment; he would make an enemy of his family, and he would have no trainer license, so going out would be dangerous, but Matt insisted. He had had enough.

For obvious reasons, once the property was under investigation and any pokemon with wounds from a whip or other abuse had been removed from that life to find a new one among other families that were guaranteed to treat them well, Matt was in the spotlight. He did not even give his parents a chance to see him; he packed some food, water, clothing, and set out.

Two days after that, he was promptly turned into this: a mix between human and pokemon. A hybrid. Human and Xerneas. yet his body still was mostly humanoid, and worked properly. Having a mix between hooves and feet, which was like having armored boots for feet in a sense, had really been the only thing he had to deal with. The hoof extensions above the back of his hands did not get in the way, and protected against damage if he put his arm in the way of something. the also hit whatever he was punching before his knuckles did.

five days is how long it took to grow him to grow a tree. How fast he had learned. Xerneas treated him better than anything he could possibly have deserved, and the four seasons together with the legendary acted as more real friends than Matt had ever had in his life. His life was an improvement. It wasn't a question as to whether he liked it or not. It was everything he could have asked for, and it was more than he deserved.

So he was feeling happy. Now if only his antlers didn't get in the way all the time, he'd be golden.

Xerneas came back. The legendary looked down at Matt, who barely noticed her. He was daydreaming, or something. Perhaps reflecting on how quickly his life had turned. She nuded the boy with a hoof, making the boy jump in surprise.

"Are you awake?" Xerneas asked the boy humorously. He dusted his pants off and stood up properly.

"Now I am." he responded "The bees?"

"I wound up using a magical technique to transport them to a suitable tree nearby the apple tree, but far enough away that pokemon could get to the food source" she relayed the information.

"Does magic have limits?" Matt asked out of the blue. Xerneas took time to consider.

"Only in the time and effort needed to execute the skill." she finally replied "It requires knowledge, and skill, and time. But as for what you could do with infinite time… the possibilities would also be infinite."

Matt looked at her weirdly. "Why aren't you the most powerful of the legendaries again, if you are so gifted with magic?" he asked. He was not actually looking for an answer. Rather, his question was rhetorical in a way.

Xerneas answered him anyways. "Because I do not wish to be." was her response "and that is why I am glad that so few beings are gifted with magic. I would never choose to be above Arceus in power, though it would take me so long to pull off that it would hardly matter. I do not desire power."

"...Neither do I." Matt revealed "Not after what my family used **their** power for."

"You truly **do** learn quickly." Xerneas complimented the boy. She now turned to the southwest. "Shall we continue?"

"Yes."

The two walked through the forest for several hours. Matt knew that it would take a few days to get to the town at his pace, and Xerneas was in no hurry at all. It could be more than two days before they made it.

"You have that weird glow-teleport thing, right?"

"Wouldn't you like that."

Matt decided that she would rather walk. "What was with the fancy entrance after you turned me into this then?"

"Oh, that was simply on a whim."

Matt stayed silent after that.

* * *

Back with the others, Riley had found Yellow again. In fact, he had just found the girl.

"Don't you argue with me agai-" Yellow started, but Riley held up a hand in the universal gesture for 'stop'.

"I get it." Riley told her. His voice was flat "There are a lot of reasons for that. I am not suitable for fighting this thing, while your special defence can. My fighting style would have a lot of difficulty with any friendly people in the way. I have others to protect, and I have a job I need to do, and I can't stop you."

Yellow sighed. "I'm glad you under-"

"And you don't want me around." Riley finished "I **get** all of that. I still want to say goodbye, because who knows how well you will fare. I would probably get myself killed anyways if I fought him again."

To see Riley's feelings truly injured was turning out to be a horrifying sight.

He extended his hand out for a handshake towards the stunned Yellow. She had no idea how to respond to that. She was at a loss for words. Finally, she just had to remind him. "I want you to stay **alive** " she corrected him slowly, emotion leaking through her words "If you would be safe, I would be fine with you coming with me, but you **won't**. That, and you have a job to do, given to you by Dialga himself. I don't have a part of that."

"I don't care what Dialga wants me to do. That can be postponed as long as you would be safe, but you **won't** be." he threw her words back at her "But I have no choice, whereas you do. Go off to your gym. You happen to be a friend. I hope you survive this little vanishing act. Don't do anything stupid, and he won't find you."

His words were harsh, but true. Nevertheless, Yellow had to get back to her job. She shook his hand, finding that his grip was firm and unyielding. He stared her down. His feelings were hurt, but he still cared about her health. Her safety.

"Stay alive, Yellow." he ordered.

"You too, poke-boy" she teased, trying to lighten the mood and failing miserably. He let go of her hand, and walked off. Yellow began to worry as to whether they would see each other again, but after catching the hidden smirk on his face after the 'poke-boy' comment, she figured all would be well.

She got in the car that she stood next to, looking the driver in the eye. "Viridian city, please." she told him.

"You got it, miss. If you're looking for the pokemon gym, it's closed at the moment." he warned her.

"It won't be after I get there."

The man decided not to ask questions and drove off.

* * *

 **All right! That was a chapter. A good amount of words, I think, to satisfy those who like longer chapters and those who like shorter chapters alike.**

 **As it seems, I have recovered from earlier. The murderous Riley lookalike was supposed to be threatening and mysterious, not... A pirate... Anyways, Sorry if my response to that seemed a bit rude, ZLAXE. (It was my legitimate reaction when I saw it, however. I was under the impression that I had conveyed the character wrong.)**

 **This chapter explained a lot of things. My stories as a collective (all of them) explain different things about the guardians, in particular. basically, clues about them will be scattered throughout the stories I create, over time. However, there were some massive hints here.**

 **Also, you wanted to know what became of Matt. Now you know. Just to point out, this was in fact planned. I plan things, don't you know? Some final decision making had to go into it of course, but that was the finer details.**

 **Everything is changing. That, and there are characters to switch between now, so I have to figure out when to focus on whom. Separating characters can be ever so complicated. But necessary in this case.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. thank you for reading, and please review. That would be amazing. I know I didn't give you all enough time to review on the last one, but I still appreciate reviews. Thank you kindly!**

 **Now, I had better go make sure Jango hasn't been brainstorming ways to freeze me in my tracks like that 'boot blade' comment did... Good day, everyone. Thank you for reading.**


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Infiltration 101

**Hello, and welcome to New Age, chapter thirteen! I feel like getting started here, so let's start with a quick message.**

 **It's a good time to remind people that a lot of things can be explained over time through small clues that I place in my chapters and scenes. Several characters have more character development than it might seem from first glance. Links to characters are around if you are willing to find them. This chapter is all over the place, but at the same time, not so much. At least, it's not supposed to be.**

 **So the detectives among you might be happy enough.**

 **Amber: Are we getting to reviews at this time?**

 **Me: Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. Who's first?**

 **Amber: Phillip Harbindinger liked the transformation piece. I don't know if he was reading when TAC1 started up for you. Wasn't that like a chapter every three or four days?**

 **Me: Without the proofreading attempts I make, and I had more time as well then. Anyways, here's ZLAXE again. If you look closely, I snuck a nickname for the character in the chapter somewhere. Matt was indeed a big character development, and I'm not done with him. Side note: Xerneas called the item she used to bond with Matt a 'jewel of life'. "But Hyperjade" I hear you exclaiming "I thought Arceus made that in the movie".**

 **And I would say yes, in canon. However, I needed a special item for Xerneas to use, and considering she is a giver of life, that only made sense to me. So I changed it. I like it better like this.**

 **Jango: Raven's reviewed both twelve and eleven here. A few punctuation errors, huh? You're slipping, Hyper.**

 **Me: Shut up, Jango.**

 **Amber: Both Raven and ZLAXE were glad to see Growlithe again. And... I think that's all we got.**

 **Me: Thank you, Amber. Now, I believe it is time to get on with the chapter. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Jango: Why do I have a sudden feeling of foreboding? Oh no, she's not-**

 **Me: Yeah, she is. I'm scared of her too, Jango. Let's get the chapter on before either of us have a panic attack.**

 **Amber: Chapter start, I guess.**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirteen: How to Infiltrate 101**

"Woo!" Scarlet cheered as Riley darted along the path, Kurenai following close behind.

Riley leaped a small tree in the middle of the small path, a tree that barely reached his height in the center of the path. Could easily be walked around or in this case, leapt over. "Who puts a dinky tree in the middle of a road?" Riley asked as he darted away from Cerulean and towards the east.

"Someone who likes trolling idiots who don't know how to walk around them." Amber replied casually.

"Who would be **that** dumb?" Riley asked curiously.

"A filthy human."

He jolted his head in acknowledgment. "Good show, watching humans try to get around small trees. I'd wager they could be slashed over with ease."

"Maybe that's how the morons got past it, by cutting it down." Scarlet offered.

"Oi, I don't want you picking up Amber's bad habits."

"A bit late." Amber proclaimed, not at all indignant.

Riley couldn't help it. After all of the shenanigans, everything felt **normal** again. "freedom!" he declared, doing a front flip over a large rock to clear it, which Kurenai had to leap over as well. Everyone repeated the phrase; This was fun. This was play. Nothing was holding them back at all.

Kurenai began to grow tired after an hour of running, and Riley kept pace with her. She had begun to gain some stamina after running everywhere with Riley, but not enough. She found herself wishing that how Amber and Scarlet rode on his shoulders could apply to her somehow.

Riley remembered how she had occasionally mentioned that to herself, softly, muttering as if not to be heard. He got a little idea, and grinned to himself as he slowed to match Kurenai's pace, and promptly scooped the absol up in his arms and blasted forward, moving towards the rocky terrain that was upcoming.

Kurenai, suitably startled, yowled out a surprised voice and saw the rocks coming at her real fast. Too stunned to struggle, she closed her eyes from both the wind and the impending impact… One that never came. She opened one eye to see Riley bounding up a near vertical rock face by finding places for his feet to land and generally having a good time, as Scarlet and Amber were.

Riley set down on the top, turning to look over the path, and to Cerulean city in the distance. He set his absol companion down, where she nearly collapsed. She had **not** been expecting that at all. He did all of that like it was effortless with a fully grown absol in his arms. She sat down to avoid falling and looked wide eyed at the ground below.

"Riley," Scarlet muttered. "I think you broke Kurenai."

The aforementioned boy looked down at the absol, watching her not say a word. "Did I" he asked, picking her up effortlessly by the shoulders and looking into her wide eyes. She barely responded until he said "yeah, I think I did."

She blinked. "That… That was… **Awesome**!" she exclaimed, squirming out of his arms before pouncing on him. Amber and Scarlet cleared out as the boy allowed himself to be knocked to the ground. He laughed as the pokemon licked him on the face, before disengaging her claws from his chest (thankfully, his metal shirt was back on) and set her down beside him.

"We know how to get around quickly then," He commented. "Say, we made about three times as much time as we normally would. Want to stare at nothing for a while?"

"Sure." Scarlet curled up next to him, and Kurenai did so on his other side while Amber typically decided that his face would do for a resting spot, making his comment about staring at nothing meaningless on the spot.

"Having my eyes closed works too…" he mumbled through the fur of Amber's tail. The four began to nap there, having no reason to worry. All was well in nature, and Riley's discreet evaluation of danger had turned up nothing.

Amber felt herself 'wake up' in the dream again. Her nightmares had gone for a while; being near Riley disrupted them. Being in extremely close proximity to him shut them down completely. Apparently, she wasn't close enough to have a proper rest. Being enveloped by the boy's arms worked more than that.

She stood almost alone in the multicolored light around her. Riley's image silently sat against an invisible wall, in a state of rest, though all she could see was a blue color where his outline was, she knew it was him.

He had always given off an aura of power in her dreams, though here it seemed stronger. Now there was a lighter blue glowing at the blue silhouette's chest. Amber decided to approach the figure, resting with one leg straight along the floor, the other bent and that foot against the floor. The image was silent. Resting, as Riley was.

Uncanny how much dream constructs could mirror their real life counterparts. Amber's paw went straight through the image without affecting it. Just an image.

Amber sighed and looked around at the landscape, or lack thereof. What else was around here? Just another image opposite Riley's image. It held the same exact position, and frankly looked precisely like Riley's image, but instead of a glowing core, it had two glowing purple eyes.

"Okay…" Amber muttered "Cracking up now. It's just a memory of that picture and how unnerving it was."

Amber approached the thing. It's glowing eyes seemed to stare at her just like the image in the book. It was silent, just… being there. "...What the heck even are you?" Amber found herself whispering to the thing "The last time we faced someone who looked like Riley, Riley almost died. We don't even know what the guardians are…"

No response. Amber was talking to the memory of the image she had seen. She felt stupid, and walked away to go snuggle up near the image of Riley, away from the black flame-wrapped shadow.

She fell asleep within the dream quickly, though a voice woke her seconds later. " **Being unknown is what I prefer.** "

Amber froze and backed away from where she was, striking the invisible wall and staying as close as possible to the comforting blue image. Her fear seemed to awaken the image of the boy, bringing it to stand in front of her and face the shadow, who had not moved.

" **Do not stand to challenge a being who offers no harm.** "

Amber froze. The image had not moved at all. It's mouth had not been visible under all of those black flames. It did not visually respond to the challenge, rather, it scolded Riley for rising to attack it, stating that it meant no harm?

That made no sense whatsoever.

" **Now wake.** " it said, and it's head rose a few degrees " **Wake and survive.** "

Amber's dream slammed into blackness before it was struck by sunlight once more. Her ears were assaulted by the sound of something. Like… Almost like…

" _Welp."_ Amber thought, before screaming out "Riley! Wake up!"

Riley jolted up instantly, keeping a grip on Scarlet and Amber, and whirling. Helicopters. Low flying ones, looking at him.

"...What kind of wake up call is that!?" Riley protested, indignant.

"The kind that lets us survive!" Amber yowled, "Not get us out of here!"

Riley grabbed Kurenai and bolted as machine gun fire finally erupted from the helicopters to where they were. Why it had taken so long was due to the fact that they were awaiting orders. Riley, instead of jumping down, decided that it would be best to jump **straight** towards one of the helicopters and land lightly on one of the guns.

"Hi!" he waved to the pilot through the window before jumping into the door and proceeding to bash every person there, who were likely waiting for them to run so that they could pursue.

Kurenai was deposited on the floor of the copter, while Riley unleashed the fury of his main weapon, defeating every deadbeat human he could find, and making sure that Kurenai did not slide out of the helicopter.

The pilot, panicking, hoped that his accomplices wouldn't shoot. They did not, in fact. Instead of blowing their comrade out of the sky, they radioed him to try and bring him to their destination. If he was alive when they got there, that would be a minor problem.

They helicopters turned and began to fly off, while Riley surreptitiously dropped down; the pilots would believe that they were too high to jump off and survive. With Kurenai back in his arms, the boy landed on the ground. Scarlet and Amber started to regain their breath.

Which is when Kurenai actually woke up. "...Huh? What did I miss?" She groggily asked, as Riley let her down. The boy was perplexed, as were his other companions. This absol had just slept through machine gun fire, being launched into and dropped from a helicopter, and had not even paid attention to the sounds that those helicopters were making.

"Uh…" Amber replied dumbly.

"Well…" Scarlet replied in a similar manner.

"Nearly died." Riley responded promptly "You are not injured, are you?"

Kurenai began to panic. "Died?! What!?"

"Shh shh shh…" Riley shushed her "It's all right. They might be back soon, but in this terrain, they would have to drop down to get to us and walk. Those freaky flying things… Whatever they are, they can't get in here."

"Helicopters." Amber supplied.

"Thank you, Amber." Riley nodded "They will be back once they realize they don't have me. I assume they wanted me dead or alive. They weren't team rocket, either."

Now Kurenai was confused. "Team rocket? Who is that?"

Scarlet sweatdropped. "We… Didn't say anything about them during the weeks that Kurenai was with us so far?"

"Apparently not," Riley replied. "Well, Team Rocket is this group of bad people who use pokemon for their various crimes… Experimentation, theft, up to murder… They are essentially terrorists plus scientists."

That ever so happy image had Kurenai shivering. Riley gave her a comforting hug and told the girl that he would protect her. She would be fine. He promised. "These people are not them, though they were **extremely** trigger happy." Riley continued "They wore different colors, I think, though all of them had this 'X' on their left shoulder in the front, like a uniform of sorts."

"That pilot had red, the guys in the copter had black and white." Scarlet noted.

"We need to pay extra attention." Riley proclaimed. "I'm sorry the fun only lasted a short while. Let's try to run more often, all right?"

Kurenai agreed now, as did the others, and the group was back to walking. Riley kept a close eye on the sun and on the cliffs above, keeping his ears open.

Nothing would get so much as ten feet close the pokemon he protected. **Nothing**.

* * *

The next morning, Yellow walked into Viridian city. having been dropped off nearby, she walked in to check on the path to the gym. Her hand slipped into a hidden pocket in her pack, between the pack and her back, grasping a simply, grey key.

The girl walked slowly, attempting not to be so obvious among the others that walked around. This had to be done quickly, with no witnesses.

Yellow made for the gym and slipped behind the building. Tapping a small device hidden in her other palm, she caused the wall next to her to slide open silently and reveal a door. The key did not fit in the door, but that was irrelevant. Yellow held the ordinary looking key to the door, the flat face of the metal against the door, and the lock clicked open.

" _Small signals."_ Yellow thought to herself, remembering why it worked at all. Had the key been damaged, she would need to go through an extensive talk with the police about it. That signal also meant that those that discreetly guard the gym from destruction would be sent to join her.

She walked into the gym, into the back room where she normally slept. Her bed was made, as usual, and everything was in order. The high-tech healing machine in the room would keep her pokemon intact.

" _I had best get ready… Trainers will be waiting."_ She muttered in her mind. She got out a set of clothing, a rather decent fashion statement that also hid her identity to a degree, with the express purpose of handling the fact that she had a lot of people who did not really like her much, throughout the years.

Team rocket would have loved to get a few bullets into her head.

She took her time, taking a lengthy shower and getting herself ready as slowly as she reasonably could, before donning the outfit, the colored contact lenses to change the appearance of her eyes from yellow to blue, and allowed her hair out of her ponytail to allow the long blonde hair to flow behind her elegantly. She completely changed her appearance now, unrecognizable despite the similar shape of her face. People knew Yellow for what she was; a girl and her pokemon. Not the beauty in a regal costume of green, brown, and yellow, dress-like in nature and fully covering her with long sleeves that were tipped with white.

The people working at the gym as gym trainers had arrived, and so had the hidden guards. it was time. She pressed a button in her room that unlocked the door, apparently blue eyes tracked to the door, and after a conversation with her pokemon, she walked out.

Viridian Gym leader Yellow stepped up to the arena in the back of all of the traps and tests for her opponents to make it through.

* * *

"We are nearly there." Xerneas announced, dragging Matt's attention away from the scenery (and away from where his careful eye had been watching a weedle and making sure that the poison type did not do anything more than inch across its branch, Matt having gained a healthy respect for poison types after that earlier mess).

"The trees do seem to be thinning out," Matt noted, nodding. "...Why does the air smell bad?"

"That would be human pollution," Xerneas informed him "Your nose will be far more sensitive to it now. Pollution has a negative effect on life, and therefore, it in particular strikes our senses in a negative manner. That, and your sense of smell should have increased by a good amount, as you have discovered in the past week."

"A negative effect on us would mean that it has a direct negative effect on life in general?" Matt clarified. At Xerneas' nod, he sighed. "Puts a new perspective on what humans do to the planet…"

Xerneas looked to the boy. "Now, humans have many disadvantages to pokemon. They would not be able to survive out in the woods with pokemon that hunt for their food." she reminded the boy "because of this, they adapted technology to make life easier for them. They **need** things like this to function properly, to stay connected. While some amount of pollution is unnecessary, some can be considered understandable."

"Because otherwise, the regions would be pretty separate, right?" Matt asked.

"Indeed. For another fact, humans tend to need to group together to survive. They can call on others or reach others faster using their technological adaptations... " Xerneas trailed off. The point was made.

"But you must think they are going too far." Matt decided.

"I Do. I simply warn you against thinking one-sidedly, which could result in you making poor decisions. Do not act rashly."

Matt nodded. "I won't." he promised. He meant it. If it was the last thing he did he was going to think everything through after that day.

The two emerged from the trees slowly, Xerneas mumbling under her breath until an array of gold and green light erupted around them before fading. Her hiding spell. The two of them traveled close by as they walked towards the city. Vermillion city. An interesting place; in some places it had buildings that resembled those of a simple village, and at other places there were buildings tearing at the fabric of the sky. There were both beach houses worthy of a summer vacation and downtown areas worthy of a Christmas shopping trip.

Matt's late home.

"Our home was over there…" he muttered, pointing towards an expensive looking set of houses in the rich portion of the residential district. "Any pokemon being raised there for using or selling would have been released by command of the law. That was my family's main source of income, though my parents had enough on their resumes to be seriously considered for most other jobs."

"What are you thinking?" Xerneas asked curiously, catching the boy's eye. He sighed, waving his hand off in the direction of his old home.

"I am thinking that my parent's would be just fine with a different occupation, and that all could have been avoided." he replied, "I am tempted to see if they will be all right, but at the same time, I do not wish to go back."

"Would you choose a different life to be on a different path now?" Xerneas' next question jolted Matt a bit.

"..." he said nothing for a while, thinking about it. "I think I would have a lot less understanding of the world and its… Fallacies, and… it's failures." he replied eventually "I would have been a kid still."

"You do not have to be a stereotypical adult whilst understanding the world." Xerneas pointed out "I learned that myself a few thousand years ago. Humor, excitement, fun… Those things are still available to someone who understands the world."

Matt frowned. "Who taught you that one?"

"Two strange pokemon. They bore resemblances to absols, but seemed to mirror each other. Almost entirely silver bodies, with blue on the edges of their horns and tails, and they each had a single wing with silver and blue feathers, again mirroring each other. That, and they looked to be kits, just about, though they were roughly five thousand years old."

"Weird…" Matt muttered. He had never heard of such pokemon "And you've never met them before?"

"I was, ah, **introduced** to them by experiencing some of their pranks. They played with time, moving at completely impossible speeds that no other pokemon could hope to match."

Matt deadpanned. "Do you have any acquaintances that **aren't** massive pranksters?"

"I have you." she pointed out abruptly. "But we are getting off topic. Will you see what has transpired after your departure, or will you travel in a different direction?"

Matt was silent for a while. She considered him a friend, most likely, after the week they had shared with each other. She wanted to know what he chose. Did he care so much about the life he had left? Yes, actually. He wanted to know what was happening.

"Yes," he decided "Let's give them a visit. Are we still hidden?"

At Xerneas' nod, he began to walk towards the city. The legendary pokemon followed him closely, keeping her hiding spell nearby the boy as he traveled. They steered clear of the busier roads, though Matt was looking at everything designed by humans to understand how it would look through the perspective of someone who cares about pokemon in addition to his previous knowledge.

Indeed, some things looked far less appealing (like meat, for example), though some other things were only slightly less justifiable in his eyes. Humans had indeed developed a degree of respect for pokemon on the part of the common person.

It was the actions of the bad apples of the species that really made a point out of how humans were viewed in regards to pokemon. Matt stepped forward when he saw a pokemon runing from a trainer with a particular glint in his eye, one he knew **very** well.

He looked back, and Xerneas did not stop him. However… "If you go to assist, you will be out of the range of the hiding spell I cast." she warned.

She was testing him. Xerneas wanted to know whether the boy would put himself in harm's way to save a pokemon from that sort of situation. He was conflicted for the barest moment, but to the legendary's joy, he turned toward them. "I don't care." he replied, and sprinted off.

" _Let's hope that pokeballs don't work on a human pokemon mix…"_ They both thought. If it did work, Xerneas resolved to appear and crush the ball flat before it could click closed, thereby saving him from that sort of situation.

Matt charged away from the area of hiding, and people gasped pretty quickly. Running quicker than a human normally would be able to, he outdistanced the boy chasing what looked like a fearful butterfree. He skidded to a halt in front of the boy, antlers glowing somewhat as his anger spiked.

Xerneas wondered if her feelings were interfering with Matt's. It was not implausible.

The boy skidded to a halt as well, facing the furred being. Matt, being humanoid and still having his pants on, likely looked very strange. "...What the hell are you?" he asked, bringing out a standard issue pokedex and raising it to the boy.

 **Ping!** The pokedex chimed "Xerneas, the life pokemon" it said, showing a picture of a normal xerneas "Legends say it can share eternal life. It slept for a thousand years in the form of a tree before its revival."

"Welp. You may look different." the boy admitted, pulling out a pokeball "But you're better than some stupid butterfree!"

Matt gave Xerneas a questioning look. She shook her head. Considering that he was the only one that could hear her right now, she said: "I can share eternal life with some effort, but I wasn't ever stuck in tree form." she revealed "I use those trees as my own form of transportation, of sorts. Directly connected to me, I can switch places with them at will."

"Go, Spearow!" the boy called, releasing the hot-tempered bird pokemon.

Matt found himself cracking his knuckles. "I don't appreciate you threatening pokemon." He told the boy in English "I know the look in your eye. **Very well**."

The people staring at the spectacle started to jabber about it being able to talk. More trainers appeared from the crowd, looking at their pokedexes in wonder and-slash-or confusion.

"Fury attack!"

The spearow obediently darted forward, lunging with short range yet powerful strikes. Matt let himself be struck repeatedly, and letting the bird fly off. He looked to his chest, where the stab wounds from the beak of the pokemon had healed in roughly two seconds. Being connected to the life pokemon must be great for his regenerative ability.

"Do you think you can hurt me right now?" Matt asked with a degree of cockiness that quickly faded into the distance. Cockiness would not help right now. What would help is talking to that spearow. Perhaps. They tended to be fine with violence, he supposed, considering how often they attacked trainers and other pokemon with such violence.

"What is your name?" Matt asked.

"It's-"

"Shut up, I wasn't asking you." Matt interrupted the boy, and pointed at the spearow, who was particularly startled.

"I don't have one." the bird pokemon said, making it's chirp sound like a growl somehow. Matt frowned. "I was raised by humans all of my life."

His tone was a strange mix between aggressiveness and formality. Matt frowned at his explanation. Xerneas had told him in the past week that the parents of the pokemon generally gave them a name, so… This spearow had likely never met his parents. That was troubling. And angering.

Matt's antlers flickered with light again, something which he was oblivious to. His anger flared. "See, I don't care what **your** name is." he told the human boy, "Your name is irrelevant, because you are one of those who would do whatever you like to get what you want, using pokemon as tools."

" _I am a damn hypocrite, but that does not make my point invalid"_ Matt reminded himself.

"As such, I feel as if it is my responsibility to remind you that pokemon are just as sentient as a human could possibly be, and considering what I have learned recently, they likely have a better set of morals too."

Now **that** , that troubled the humans. Matt continued. "And… It is my responsibility to stop you from harming this butterfree." he finished. He searched for the power now inside of him, feeling the life energy he had been using, and a more powerful energy as well. A more volatile energy.

With a mental command, he held the energy at the ready in his palm. "Spearow…" The boy muttered, and Matt hoped beyond hope that he was going to call his bird off. However… "Fury attack!" the angered human roared, and the bird obediently raced forward to deal more damage to Matt.

Matt blasted a beam of energy right past it, that sailed past the pokemon and into the sky, making the spearow panic and fly away. The shining light in Matt's palm… He did not know how to use it properly or whether it would do enough damage to seriously injure another… He did not want to test its destructive power out.

The spearow fled back to the boy, not wanting to be torn down. Seeing this, he picked a pokeball out of his bag and promptly threw it.

While the ball was excellently thrown, Matt merely had to lean to the side. Where all of this indifference in the middle of battle was coming from, he did not know. Maybe Xerneas' mood was indeed influencing his own in this situation.

"Why are you doing that?" Matt asked, directing his question at Xerneas, though the humans would not understand.

"I am not. At least, not consciously." Xerneas informed him "Though it may be likely that in a situation of duress, my emotions are influencing yours through our connection."

Matt's expression was unreadable for a bit. "...Oh well." He finally muttered.

The kid, on the other hand, was beginning to panic. The pokeball failed because Matt just avoided it, and the attack failed because Matt healed in seconds from the minor wounds. Other trainers were starting to approach. Those that had not been cowed by his speech were bringing out their own pokemon.

Many of the pokemon that were sent out by them were like the spearow; trained to just battle. The rest were looking fearful or otherwise hesitant. These were the trainers that one should keep an eye on. Things would get out of hand quickly.

Matt searched out the butterfree, and was glad to know that he could not find it. "Sorry, but that butterfree has managed to lose you." He informed the boy, before trying to walk off. Simultaneously, a dozen pokemon attacks were called.

Matt, not wanting to fight back because he was unsure of the abilities of his powers, tried to defend against it with the hard structures along his arms. Warmth spread around him, and the attacks stopped coming. Matt was surrounded by a green aura, courtesy of Xerneas.

"Come, child," Xerneas told him "We shall leave now."

Matt looked up. "R-right. Okay." was his response before he walked towards the legendary. Upon entering the area where she stood again, she reconfigured her hiding field for him, making him seem to vanish into thin air for the trainers, who were busy staring dumbfounded at him as he left.

"I think it's time to see what we came to see…" He muttered towards Xerneas. The legendary worried that the boy would lose some confidence as a result of that, seeing as he knew he had little control of his powers. Had he not thought quickly, he could have seriously injured that spearow.

"you did wonderfully, for not knowing how to control your abilities." She offered. He nodded, thinking to himself that he was as careful as he could have been. And yet, he had not achieved anything but let people know that he existed, and allowed one pokemon to escape. None of the humans that actually needed a lesson had been taught one.

Xerneas fell silent. She knew she would have to console him later. Instead, she moved along, the boy gratefully leaving that stressful situation behind. It was not long before Xerneas had to ask a question.

"Do you believe I did wrong in allowing the situation to go on for as long as I did?"

Matt did not know the answer. "I don't know." He admitted. "I don't have a freaking clue what I'm doing. On the other hand, if you had shown up, there would have been a lot more people throwing pokeballs. Neither decision was really a correct one, but we still managed to protect a pokemon anyways."

"Decisions can be difficult." Xerneas found her angle "And that is something we all must understand. if we are to survive."

Silence followed the two as they traveled towards Matt's old home. The boy directed the two of them through street after street until they reached an area with a lot of larger manors grouped together. He walked through the gate, pulling an old card from his pocket to activate the electronic lock.

"I did not want to leap over." He explained unnecessarily. Xerneas chuckled at the boy, walking through as well.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, being stronger and faster than your human form." She replied.

"I noticed that…" Matt muttered, thinking back to easily outdistancing the trainer he had confronted. He shook his head to stop thinking about that, and continue walking along the streets as his old home came into view. He was glad that the clopping sound his feet were making were muted to the rest of existence.

"That's the building." Matt announced, gesturing to the house along the side of the road, preceded by a winding driveway that generally looked neat and tidy. The building screamed rich, as did the front lawn. Xerneas saw no sign on the outside that would say 'bad people hurt pokemon here' at all.

Matt walked right through the gate. "it's still ajar." He noted dully "Perhaps they were impacted by my disappearance and the loss of their income more than I imagined."

He strode forward, Xerneas keeping pace with the boy as to make certain that he did not reach past her range. She could increase that range, but did not wish to make anything that was in that range to be able to see the previously invisible beings. Not that it would, but it **could**.

Magic was confusing.

The boy walked up to the front door five minutes later, and promptly unlocked the door with a key he pulled from his pocket. Another point for the boy deciding to keep those clothes on despite how uncomfortable they must have been with the fur underneath them.

The door opened silently, as the magic worked its… magic on the surroundings. The xerneas-human hybrid moved in to see what was going on, and Xerneas called out to him, making the boy turn. He sweatdropped.

"You don't exactly expect me to get through that door, do you?" Xerneas asked, both being too tall for the door and her antlers being too wide for the door. There was no chance she was fitting in there without being extremely uncomfortable.

"Oh." Matt replied dumbly "Well… Can you teleport into the next room?"

"With a minute or so to use magic and do so." the legendary replied, magic power flowing around her in golden streams. Matt nodded to her, and walked in a ways before turning the corner to the nearest window, which was right next to it.

"Massive manor, and the door is small." Matt muttered, "I never asked why."

Xerneas apparently decided to do something different, and took a few more minutes preparing something. Matt leaned against the wall, waiting, until something bumped into his back, making the boy yelp. That was supposed to be a wall!

He stumbled away, seeing Xerneas' head poking through the wall, the wall looking like it was rippling around her neck and antlers. "Hmm-hmm-hmm…" She chuckled, walking through the wall. Matt looked at her incredulously. "Oh, I simply enchanted myself to be able to travel through the wall like a ghost type. Floors should still work fine."

Her assurance had Matt thinking about whether it would be funny or not to see her fail to take the stairs. That one was a bit amusing. Xerneas understood the meaning of his own chuckle, frowning. The female legendary muttered nudging the boy a bit with her hoof before stalking off, hiding a smile.

Matt got up and quickly moved to enter the next rooms as Xerneas walked right through walls. The girl move about in some ways that would make it difficult for Matt to follow her, so he sometimes had to run about to avoid losing that great invisibility while he searched for his parents within the building.

Eventually, they found the two of them. Both adults looked angry, and were making a heated and enraged discussion about what they should be doing.

"-Missing child posters, looking for a job... Everything... Mark! We can't do all of this at once!"

"Then stop wasting time checking on the placements of those damn posters, Marigold!"

"I can't do that! Matt's gone, Mark. He worried what you would-"

"Damn what he was worried about. He was right to get out of there while he had a chance!"

"Mark, we can't just stop looking for him!"

"Like hell we can't. He ruined us."

"He ruined **you**! I tried to turn you around, tried to reason, and only Matt, who had no knowledge of these conversations, actually had the **guts** to shut this down with a single speech!"

"The most profitable business is the most viable business, Marigold. You know that."

"I… I do know that, but it doesn't matter. We can sustain this home with lesser jobs."

"We didn't **need** lesser jobs, woman! Who cares what happens to those animals!? If Matt listens to one wacko and tears everything apart and leaves, let him! I brought my son up to be smarter than that."

"..."

Matt decided to turn the corner, to view his parents again. He wanted to at least see his mother. His father did not seem to care much about his disappearance. It might have been safest for him to walk out after all.

"Xerneas," He called, "Let me out of the invisibility. I think I might as well show up, right?"

"..If you want to…" Xerneas murmured, hesitant. she did not want the boy to cause himself more pain than he needed to deal with. She had come to care for the boy, and seeing him go through that conflict hurt her as well.

She shortened her range, careful to keep herself hidden for the moment, in time for Matt to tap his foot-slash-hoof on the ground, making enough of a noise for the two adults to freeze and look in his direction. "What the hell are-" Matt's father exclaimed before another voice startled the lot of them.

"Now, now…" a female voice called out of nowhere. Matt froze, as did his parents. Xerneas herself froze because she recognized that voice.

Matt looked to the legendary, seeing alarm flickering through her face. If **she** was alarmed, then goodness… They might be in trouble. A girl waved from where she sat on the counter. Matt stared at her. She couldn't be any older than him! Appearing out of nowhere, she wore what looked like silk pants that were very loose around the ankles, slowly becoming more tight until they were the typical sweatpant tightness around the waist. That bit of clothing was pure gold.

The upper half, on the other hand, was covered in a golden chestplate, with shoulder plates that covered the shoulders nicely but stopped there. The rest of her arm was covered halfway down the forearm by more of the silky cloth that rested there.

Her hair was gold as well as her eyes. He eyes literally glowed golden, the irises shining brilliantly. Matt noticed that her skin was somewhat pale, and those were literally the only two colors she had about her. Pale tan and gold.

She hopped off the counter, and promptly approached the boy. "Need to pause this right now." She proclaimed while Xerneas stared in utter shock.

"Oh, you look like a deer in the headlights, both of you." the golden girl said cheerfully, poking Matt in the nose and quickly looking over to Matt's parents "And the two of you are gaping like fish, This joker too, actually. Nothing says a mix between two species like showing characteristics of both, right?"

"Who the hell are you!? Both of you!"

"A-Angelica!?" Xerneas stepped back, shuddering for a moment.

Matt looked between the two. Who the heck was this girl?"

"Eh, it doesn't matter who I am." Angelica shrugged "The point is, I can't have two things going on at the same time. Difficult to differentiate in writing. You understand, right?"

"No." Matt answered instantly.

"Plain and simple, I'm pausing this for a moment. Sweet dreams!" Angelica said, well, angelically, and snapped her fingers. A golden spark showed between her fingers, and the four others promptly dropped to the ground, asleep.

"That'll make it easier…" the girl said, crossing her arms, "I'll wake them up when the next part's done."

* * *

At that moment, Riley started his path to sneak towards the power plant, his pokemon friends following him and being under cover at all times. The building was aglow with lights. So were the vehicles and the helicopters that surrounded the building.

"I was told that this plant had been left to be a habitat for pokemon." Riley snarled.

"Maybe it used to be…" Scarlet responded quietly.

"Those are the helicopters that shot at us…" Amber whispered.

"So they are." Riley nodded. He cracked his knuckles. "Say, how about a little discreet demolition?"

Amber gave him a look. "Does it **have** to be discreet?"

Riley grinned. A grin that shouted to any who could see it that things were about to get **very bad** for the people he was about to charge towards. He stared down the things sitting outside the building. "No." He decided, and then said "Stay there."

Amber was going to argue, but Scarlet stopped her with a paw on the eevee's shoulder. She shook her head. "We'd just get hurt… We don't know what we're doing, my electric attacks hurt me really bad to use now, the only thing Kurenai has ever done damage to is Riley himself, and your acts of strength seems to have been influenced by breadsticks." She reasoned.

"Rude…" Kurenai muttered.

"Wait there. I'm serious." Riley proclaimed, and nearly bounded off before catching himself and digging around for his phone. He pulled it out, silenced the ringer, and called Jenny. She answered immediately.

"Riley? It has not been long since you left." Jenny greeted the boy "Have you gotten to the power plant yet?"

"I wasn't the first." Riley declared abruptly "Helicopters, cars, the like. Some of the vehicles have guns on them, as we discovered after being woken up from a rather relaxing nap. I don't know what they had against me, but…"

"Team rocket?"

"No. They had these little 'X' symbols on their shoulders, but otherwise…"

"We'll send some backup. Are you in need of medical care?"

"No. I am fine, thanks to Amber. I am going to go in there and find out what's up. If any lives are in danger, I am going to handle it personally." He declared.

Jenny was going to argue, but she knew Riley was not exactly asking for permission. She sighed. "Help is on the way. Stay safe, will you?"

"Yellow would have your head if I didn't, and I don't want that." Riley replied casually. He then said goodbye and hung up quickly. "All right, **now** I'm off." He said, and disappeared towards the building.

"Stay safe, Riley…" Kurenai whispered.

"Don't go getting yourself killed." Amber followed up.

The boy slid to a stop next to the edge of the building and started to leap up the fancily designed (and very convenient) ledges on the building to get to the top, where he noticed that the place had broken down a bit. The ceiling was not entirely intact. Also incredibly convenient.

Riley's head popped over the edge to see inside the second floor of the building. Nobody to be found here; it seemed to be entirely empty. Good, because there were no enemies, bad, because there were supposed to be electric types swarming this place.

Riley dropped down with the barest ' **tmp** ' and looked about. He had to go further in to understand what was happening here, where the pokemon had gone. He snuck through the door, checking down the halls. He heard footsteps, but they were not quite around the corner.

Riley closed the door again and waited, while the footsteps walked past him. Silently, he opened the door and looked around. A man walked along the hall, stereotypical white coat flowing behind him, with three pokeballs around his waist.

Riley did not get a bad vibe from this one. Sometimes, you just get a moment of foreboding from someone you see. Not here. Riley had learned to trust his instincts, but he could not pretend to be certain.

He silently trailed the man, noting the lack of spacial awareness that the scientist had. Drawing his staff for security, he made sure to stay directly behind the man, even stepping in sync with him. Someone not paying attention would not even see Riley from a distance with the taller man acting like a shield.

Riley was eventually forced to duck away into a corner and wait as about ten people dressed the same way walked around in the opposite direction in once again convenient timing. Figuring more people meant more problems, he walked along with that group this time.

Occasionally dodging into rather deep doorframes, or gaps in the walls, or larger gateways, as the group collectively had more spacial awareness.

He darted around the corner as they moved along, and they entered a room to the right with humming machines literally everywhere. In the center of the room was an empty glass box, with glowing lines filled with energy traveling into a open space in the metal opening in the bottom of the box.

Riley darted in before the gate could be closed, moving so fast and so quietly that he somehow got under every other person's radar as if by magic, slipping behind a desk area and kept an eye on them.

"How long has the Transmutation Crystal been missing now?" one asked.

"About a week, and we haven't seen it since we found the girl that had gotten it somehow. She escaped by using it."

"I have not seen the footage of who stole it." the first reminded the other. "I only know that it was stolen, and to waste any person I see holding a glowing red rhombus-like crystal regardless of the amount of combat training I have. It's apparently important."

"Important." a female scientist repeated from the side "It was the gateway to having nearly three times the test subjects that we had before, by luring people in and doing it the old fashioned point-and-click maneuver. Much easier to bring in starving homeless people, and less messy. Yeah, that was pretty important."

About half of the scientists looked at her with disdain evident. " _How many of the people working here actually want to be here?"_ Riley wondered to himself, taking down the name 'Transmutation Crystal' for future reference.

"We should not have been using humans anyhow. A quarter of us…" another scientist muttered "Think we're going too far with the pokemon as well."

"Saps." the woman that Riley decided to keep an eye on replied, her own disdain about her. She walked to a computer, thankfully opposite of Riley so that he could see. She played some footage back. The room seen from above played, with no human present. The woman then rewinded it to the point where there was still a crystal that day.

"As you can see, a red absol walks in, blasts through the glass with a charge beam of all attacks, and straight up walks off with the crystal, though there was some hesitation. Men who chased her down claimed that she spoke english as well as a human would. The female also demonstrated a flamethrower that was beyond the destructive capabilities of the average top tier fire type."

"That's weird from the start…" One of the other scientists muttered.

"That's about it. They replaced the glass case on a whim during a lull in action. That charge beam… look at it again."

She replayed the video, and upped the volume. " **ZZZATCH!** "

"Nearly instantaneous…"

"Is that plasma?"

"It blasted it apart, but also melted the remains… That was plasma, no doubt. Not like the simple electrons from a regular electric attack…"

"Precisely." the evil woman said "Which means that getting our hands on this one… would be **quite** the opportunity."

There were mutterings among the scientists. Worry, frustration, a few of them nodded. Riley hoped that they did not gain any degree of control over this red absol, whoever she was. Maybe that would be an interesting experience.

But she was likely long gone at this point. Hopefully out of the reach of these trigger happy bozos.

"What is the plan?"

"Continue what we are doing, as well as we can, and if we see a red absol, take it out without hesitation and retrieve that crystal. If it survives, use it."

Riley's right hand clenched, and the knuckle on his pointer finger cracked twice. . Thankfully, the scientists had gave a chorus of "Alright", hesitantly or otherwise, at that moment. They took some notes, analyzed some data from the computers, took an agonizing amount of time writing things down (Riley took a liking to the man who seemed most hesitant to do these things, as if he would rather do anything else, who also seemed to have the forethought to use a laptop he held in one arm and tapped away at it).

Finally, They walked on out and Riley had the chance to go over what he had learned. He dug about in his stuff, looking for his police stuff. Something ought to help him collect stuff from these fancy computers. Finally, he pulled a few flash drives around.

One was for stealing data, one was for destroying databases of other systems for use in the more sneaky police operations when dealing with criminal teams. The problem was, Riley hadn't the slightest clue which was which, and that book about police work had always warned about alarms when talking about stealing or destroying data.

So he couldn't do that right now. He instead put the stuff away and bolted. The boy shot through the corridors for a while before slowing down and staying quiet again. He had to find the pokemon. There ought to be hundreds of them swarming this place, it being operational yet still abandoned, constantly generating power.

He looked for the electricity. Placing his ear against the wall as he passed it, he listened for the telltale humming of power running through an area. It was there, resonating through the metal walls of the building. It was deep within; He had to get to it, and maybe that is where these humans had put the pokemon.

The building was large, with less people in it in comparison to that size. For that reason, Riley found it easy enough to sneak about. The humming became audible throughout the air as he neared his destination, and the quantity of individuals working around there increased, to the point where some spaces were being treated like office blocks.

As he went deeper, less people seemed unsatisfied with their position in life. Riley wanted to give a good smack to everyone in the building, whether they felt guilty or not, but he restrained himself for the sake of the mission.

The sneaking about became nearly impossible in the span of a minute. Riley had to move as fast as he could as quietly as he could to not be seen, though he was occasionally heard. Occasionally, someone would check out a noise, and shrug and walk away as Riley had hauled ass around the next corner.

The center of the building had a few loops in it, and Riley had to learn which paths people preferred to walk, whilst not actually being able to see where they were going. A lot of listening to footsteps was had. Riley eventually, somehow, got to the center of the building where all of the generators were put together.

That is where he found the cages. Electric types were trapped there. All of them looked weak. Pained. Riley saw wires connected to their cages, everywhere. What the fuck was this?

Riley snuck around a generator and using the oddly shaped structure to hide from most angles. He watched the remaining angles, and tried to learn from the people who were out and about what happened. He caught the words "They brought in a bunch of recruits recently, so answer their questions, all right?" and tuned in.

"What's there to tell? The jobs around here are 'push that button at regularly timed intervals', and it will be until we have less people, which won't happen because we keep getting **more**."

"The electric pokemon."

"What about them?"

"What they're being used for."

"Oh. That. Why-"

"They'll ask. Some of them actually give a damn, believe it or not. Believe it or not, **I** give a damn. I don't want a single one of these things dying, because A: they make life easier for us, and B: it's harder to test on electric types with all that energy in their bodies, and draining them entirely kills them. So much more expensive to properly test on them, and C: this is actually the most important; pokemon technically are sentient. I care about that, and the law cares about that. We kill any of them, and the damage we could do if we deal with the law increases. The reason I care about that? Because I actually kind of like the animals. Why do you think I spend so much time on keeping them happy to a degree. I am not going to torture them."

The monologue was met with silence. Riley peeked to see who had spoken, and listed him as someone not to beat to death; somebody for the 'redeemable' list. The middle-aged man with the reading glasses halfway down his nose was at least trying to make it easier. He was involved, which was bad, but he was helping. Who knew what sort of state they would be in without a few helping the pokemon survive.

Riley caught the few people who nodded at his explanation, and then ducked away was tempted to listen in, lean against the generator in a super obvious spot, and pretend to take notes with a pencil and paper like an asshole, but he held himself back. Save that for a time when some humor might be appreciated.

" _Meh, I'll do that someday."_ Riley promised himself, before footsteps announced the arrival of others, muffled by the surprisingly quiet generators. He waited through the lengthy introductions, annoyed at them not getting at the point.

Eventually, the golden question was asked. "Why are the electric types in these odd cages?"

"The generators were retrofitted to generate plasma based electricity rather than simple electrons when the building was intentionally turned into a pokemon habitat. Not having the time to fix them up, we instead set these pokemon to run the energy through, as they can absorb lightning after reaching certain ages and they generate the pure electricity we require. We turned them into energy converters, basically." a woman responded.

"Ah."

"How did you manage that?"

"Only the engineers need to know that." the woman replied stiffly "What you need to know is that, knowing some of you are pathetic and soft, that the pokemon are fed and kept in good enough condition to continue functioning, and are so tired all of the time because they have little energy constantly in their bodies due to the electric input and draining system that they are barely conscious. We keep an eighth of the pokemon offline on this system to keep them in better physical condition, taking them to get exercise for a week. Unlike the other types of pokemon that come in here, we treat them quite well."

" _...I should be focusing on the other pokemon then…"_

Riley tuned in again. "Miss, I was sent to direct you to the pokemon lab." a new voice said.

"Dammit. Bad time," she muttered, "Dave, take over the explanation of the works. I'll go now."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Riley leaped around, swiped a white coat from a chair, and put the thing on. He could try and pass himself off as an adult. He looked like a young adult after all. As long as nobody assumed he knew things…

He walked briskly, deliberately, to join the others as they walked on. He caught sight of the woman in charge, whom he so desperately wanted to smash flat, and analyzed her appearance. Her constant glare hid an intelligence, as well as sadistic tendencies. She wore a red dress that trailed behind her in yellow and gold in the back, which trailed about four feet behind her. The others were careful not to walk on it, suggesting a fear of her. A quite curvaceous woman; her dress left little to the imagination. Directly on the right breast portion of her dress was an intricate orange 'X' with so many small designs and swirls in it that they couldn't be counted. Her black, wavy hair went all the way to the small of her back.

The man who he judged could be redeemed to a degree saw him, and raised an eyebrow. Riley shook his head and continued on. The man, knowing he was not supposed to be there, elected not to say a word to the woman in charge here and instead speak with the teenager.

"Who are you?" he whispered in the back. Riley looked at him, and drew his new coat aside for a moment to reveal the staff. The answer could be interpreted as 'you don't want to know' or 'you might find out later'. One of the two.

the vague answer was followed by silence. They walked along, without Riley having to dart around corners every five seconds like a trapped rat. The boy walked into a massive room in the building, filled with a green colored generator that looked much newer, and it wasn't generating electricity.

It was generating some other substance, numerous quantities of liquids that would occasionally switch as more people put more calculations into the main computer. Those liquids were being brought into labeled containers for the beakers.

There were pokemon as well. In cages, near some of the lab stations. Most were definitely no longer normal, as different injections and mutagens had been forced into their bodies. "We are working on instantaneous transformation here." the evil lady informed the new workers "I pity those of you that have to get rid of the corpses of the failures.

Riley stiffened up terribly. That uncaring tone… **this** lady was going to die. He was going to make certain of that, lawful or not.

Many other scientists looked uncomfortable as well. "Would it not make more sense to make sure it will work on pokemon by using dumber animals?"

"Pokemon respond quicker to the drugs. Quicker results, and a nearly endless supply of them. That, and the mutagens are designed for pokemon. Regular animals would die if any of these things got into them." was the answer from another scientist in the group.

Riley looked to the surroundings while the woman continued to explain. "The successes we kept over in the back, and feed them and such. Eventually, we will put them in pokeballs and use them for other purposes that our team. The only electric type we have actually used is there, though that is due to our use of the transmutation crystal before that was stolen."

Riley looked over. There were pokemon that looked particularly weak, their cages stacked in the back of the room. Pokemon with extra limbs, more muscles… Riley frowned. Those pokemon were not built in a way that would result in survival on their own. Different appendages covered them, making them either built for combat only, or otherwise… the definition of 'success' was skewed with these people.

" _The poor pokemon…"_ Riley murmured in his head " _That's it, everybody in this building is being taken down and taken out unless they have been trying to help the pokemon."_

He vowed to start with the evil witch of a woman.

Riley looked and found the electric type that the woman mentioned. He twitched. The luxray within the cage was very large. About twice the size of a normal luxray. electricity flickered through it's fur constantly as it shifted in its cage. It's muscles were thick and powerful, though it still looked regal.

The regal effect was only strengthened by the raven-black wings tucked against it's back. The massive luxray was sleeping peacefully, and unlike every other pokemon, was left completely alone. His tail flicked, spreading sparks around at a constant rate.

"His electricity is running rampant, but his body can handle it. It's our opponents that will have to fear once we gain control over him. Unfortunately, brainwashing and other means of control seem to have been rendered ineffective, though a dark ball should work just fine. We just have to get more of them from our next raid on the team rocket base. It's the only success of theirs we haven't been able to copy properly. Yet." the enemy explained.

There was more, but Riley had managed to meet eyes with the luxray. Eye contact was important for communication. Riley flashed the staff secured at his waist under his coat again. He gave a short glare at the unnamed woman in charge's back, and met his eyes again.

The luxray gave a rumble, causing the men around the cage taking measurements to leap away in fear. The luxray looked at what Riley had learned was called a 'light switch'.

Riley shook his head very slightly, tapping his weapon through his coat and gesturing minorly towards the woman without looking at her. This expressed the wish to cause some violence. The luxray gave a shrug and settled down. His eyes were closed, but that was irrelevant. He was watching. Luxrays could always watch if they wanted to.

" _Lights… Camera…"_ Riley thought catching sight of cameras in the corners of the room. A very small amount of blind spots, and he could not move freely around. If he acted, he was bringing a power plant sized building's worth of people down on him… Those that were not afraid to get themselves kicked around.

He did not know what to do yet. He could just beat everything up and leave, but if an army of people with guns came in, he was ready to admit he may not survive that. " _Ah, but what do I care about survival, anyways?"_ Riley wondered.

He had lost his concentration. He turned back, and sweatdropped. The woman was staring him down. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked menacingly. Riley made the decision that he didn't care how much havoc he caused. This woman was going to feel some serious pain.

But that did not mean he did not have to have an attitude about it. "Yes, actually." he replied with a grin, stepping forward "but you have had my undivided attention since I got here." He paused, his eyes overshadowing. "Murderer…" He finished. The tone of his voice changed as such that every being in the room save the luxray shivered.

The boy shrugged off his coat, revealing his silver clothing and his staff at his waist, the same staff that he held in front of him. "Must I introduce myself?"

"Yes, actually." the woman replied, causing the boy to shrug.

"whatever. The name's Riley. Police. Pokemon translator. Going sort-of-AWOL in the attempt to rip apart everything you have built and save every pokemon that still lives within these walls. Unlike most of the shitty people in charge here, I know what these pokemon probably feel about the bullshit you are putting them through-"

The woman faked a yawn. Riley comically faceplanted before hopping back up. "Alright," he growled, "You have very little time to get your act together, undo everything you have done, and… Oh, wait. You don't get to give yourself up and get mercy. How many pokemon have you killed?"

The sadistic smile met his glaring eyes. "I haven't bothered to count." she responded.

Riley stepped forward. Every other person besides the woman stepped back. She herself raised her hands and took a defensive stance. She wore red gloves with golden lines along them, as if they could do her some good. Riley naturally noticed this, and assumed that they did at least something.

He walked forward now. Slowly. Deliberately. The woman's smile reached his eyes, and he suddenly darted behind her, a strike intended for her back instead met her arm. "Quick, are you?" Riley asked, striking a few more times.

The woman felt her speed being bested, and her arms hurt from the attacks she managed to block with minor success. She decided to give the boy a little surprise.

"Wuh!?" Riley exclaimed, leaping away as the woman swept her gloved hand and released a wave of fire at him while his staff was out and behind him after a strike. battered, the woman stepped back. Her thin and delicate looking gloves flickered now with flames.

"Okay…" Riley muttered, watching her as she giggled at him. she moved her hands through the air in swirling patterns, flames following her palms.

"You didn't think it would be so easy, did you?" the girl inquired in a sexy tone "There is a reason people call me Ember."

"Because you plans burn to ashes?" Riley guessed as he stood up straight. He got sniggers from the people that were supposed to be working for this Ember person. "Listen, Witch." Riley continued, angering the woman "I don't care what sort of abilities those gloves have; you're going down. I've lost too many fights recently. You pale in comparison to some of my opponents. Zach could waste you easily. That clone of me—let's call him Mute for now—would have you dead in seconds. Me? I tend to take my time and banter a bit. So does Zach honestly, but this is a quarterstaff."

"I know what a quarterstaff is." Ember retorted, and sent a sphere of flames his way with the gloves. The boy put his staff in the way, letting the woman watch as the legendary metal absorbed the flames easily and turned flickering red and yellow.

"You don't know what **my** quarterstaff is." Riley retorted, and shot forward with a speed that Ember had not seen in a long time. Her yellow eyes widened as she was smashed in the face, far faster than she could possibly retaliate, and was thrown back into the far wall.

"Curse you and your fancy enchanted vibranium!" She yowled, angry.

"What's wrong?" Riley asked menacingly as she rubbed the burns she had sustained on her face and chest; Apparently she was not immune to the flames she used. "Can't handle the fucking **heat**?"

Ember knew then that fighting was pointless. Nobody was coming to help her in time, and she was not going to survive like this. The guards must be on their way by now, but the building was so large…

She pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the boy, firing at him. She only struck the staff, which rebounded away.

"One thing you ought to know about me, Witch." he told her, and adjusted his staff. "I am **very** good at my job." She fired again, for him to deflect it. He deflected it so perfectly that it rebounded and struck a certain lock off of the gate and reflected with far less power.

 **Clatter!**

A very angry luxray stood at the heights of the men near him, who backed away. Ember flinched. Her perfect creation was loose! She pulled out a pokeball, hoping to take him with her before things got out of hand, but as she prepared to toss it, it was casually tipped out of her hand by a staff.

She turned to see Riley was **very** close to her face, looking extremely unhappy. He stepped forward. Ember stepped back. "next time, you won't be so fortunate." She snarled.

"You aren't leaving here alive." Riley informed her, and charged. She swirled, fire surrounding her like a cocoon, before bursting apart, making the boy jump away and cover the space between him and the fire with his staff again.

Ember was gone.

"Seriously!?" Riley exclaimed "Since when does fire powers equal teleportation!?"

"Erm... " A random voice sounded behind him. "It doesn't"

"Then what was that bullshit!?" Riley responded without turning around.

"...Not certain."

"Brilliant," Riley muttered sarcastically. He whirled around. "Alright. Some of you may or may not have a problem with what just happened. Case in point, you lot are going to be arrested, put to trial and all that jazz. My police friends are on their way, and I have my self-declared authority to brutally bash anybody who tries to get past me at the only door on the entire building."

That froze a lot of people, but Riley had looked to the very large luxray next to him. "Sorry 'bout the rude way I opened your cage." He apologized in a humorous tone as he walked off "I'm terrible with keys."

The luxray sweatdropped, which was unusual for him. That statement was so off the wall. How does he not know how to use a damn key but knows how to fight like that? Curious. He then watched the boy bring out a phone and call up the police, and walk out.

The large electric type followed the boy away, giving the humans threatening growls to keep them at bay. The boy spoke with Jenny about what was going on, what had happened, and what needed to be done with the pokemon. This 'Jenny', whoever she was, was addressed as a superior, but she seemed to listen to the boy's commands without hesitation.

Jenny informed Riley that they were mere minutes away at this time, and were prepared to apprehend them. That was when Riley was jumped by the people with guns.

The mutated pokemon was mildly impressed by the speed and power Riley showed in dispatching the enemies. He discreetly shocked one down that was behind the boy, though the boy had turned before the electron attacks had struck to take that one down as well. Not a single enemy had gotten a shot off, and Riley still had the phone against his ear.

"You've brought **all** the handcuffs, right?"

* * *

"Why didn't you take me along and let me watch you kick their asses!?" Amber cried out, slapping Riley repeatedly after she got on his shoulder. He ruffled her fur after she was done doing so.

"Because they might have used your life as leverage." Riley replied, ruffling her fur again. Suddenly, Scarlet squeaked in surprise, and Kurenai followed suit after following her gaze.

The luxray loomed over Riley in a sitting position, utterly silent. Riley looked back, and raised an eyebrow.

"Welp," he admitted, "I didn't see you sneaking up on us. Or… Hear you. Or… Anything."

After a moment of silence, Riley facepalmed. "Listen, after the maniac copycat guy after Yellow who didn't speak—I decided to name him Mute for the moment, by the way—I don't need anybody to sit there and be quiet. At least you aren't trying—or succeeding—to kill me."

The large, winged luxray recoiled very slightly and said "Er… Sorry. I did not know what to do."

Amber blinked, hearing his voice. "Er… Wait, you're a guy? Your body is kinda…"

"Feminine." Scarlet finished "somewhat."

The luxray growled. " **I'm a guy** , **dammit**!" he roared. He shook his head afterward, taking in the surprised look on most of the others. The girls were stunned, and Riley looked cheerful enough.

"Well, who are you, then?" Riley asked.

"I am-"

More vehicles screeched into the scene. Jenny hopped out within seconds of stopping and started barking orders while her growlithe partner was literally barking orders to the pokemon. She sent them on doing all sorts of things like interrogations and arrests, and working towards safely freeing the pokemon.

She then walked up to Riley. "Good to see you're safe." She greeted him. He nodded, and gestured to the building.

"Make sure those pokemon are treated properly. I'll be watching." he told her.

Jenny realized he was not in the mood for small talk. "Very well, please tell me what happened."

Riley took a deep breath. "I snuck into the building rather easily. The top floor was nearly deserted. Upon entering the lower floor, I had to be more cautious and even really lucky at times to avoid every person there. A few things I noticed before I learned what the pokemon there were being used for included that several of the people looked like they **really** didn't want to be there, for various reasons. One man had been making sure to treat the pokemon properly, so when I managed to walk into the main area with one of those coats on, I saw what was happening."

"The lady who led us there had this sadistic look about her and an intricate 'X' on the front of her shoulder. She wore really fancy red and yellow clothing, and her gloves seemed to generate fire and let her use it. She was responsible for most of the 'failures' as she called them, and after knowing that she was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of pokemon, I tried to take her down, and nearly succeeded. The blasted witch used this fire trick and disappeared right in front of me, which should have been impossible. Even so, during the fight I freed this luxray here, who seems to have been the only one they experimented on to be functioning perfectly."

Jenny had taken it all down on some notepaper she had brought, before freezing and doing a double take at the massive luxray that she had not really noticed, as he stood so quietly. She looked up at his glowing eyes and silhouetted form, with massive black wings that could probably support it just fine in the air visible outlined around his back.

"Oh…" she said meekly under the stare. That was one of the most fearsome things she has ever seen.

"He kinda sneaks up on you, yeah." Riley nodded "Caught **me** off guard. Anyways, make sure you know the full story on these people. Some of them were really hesitant about doing this to pokemon, and fear of the crazy fire lady might have played a factor. I managed to restrain myself from bashing anybody that didn't have weapons."

Jenny recovered. "That's good. That's very good." she replied. Riley looked over to the luxray again.

"You never did get to introduce yourself." Riley commented. The winged luxray nodded.

"The wiped some of my memories away after they took me into that place, though I was allowed the memory of having a red crystal pointed at me and firing a beam of some sorts. They called it a 'transmutation crystal', and mentioned to be careful with it because it was the only one they had. They had me in that cage constantly, and used various things on me that reacted with my body and changed me. Apparently, I was pretty much their only complete success thus far. Eventually, they gave me a name for simplicity's sake. They started calling me-"

 **Screeech!**

"That would be the rest of the group coming along for everything from medical treatment to making arrests… I think we will need more vehicles. Riley, what will you do with the luxray?" Jenny asked.

"Can I not be interrupted, please?" the aforementioned luxray asked, slightly irritated.

"She does have a point." Riley reasoned "You are welcome to come along with us if you wish to. otherwise, you should probably be able to handle yourself in the wild. I don't keep any of the pokemon who stay with me in their pokeballs, though I use pokeballs to at least make it so that they can never be captured by anybody else, and the pokeballs go to professor Oak, who gives it to the pokemon in his field, and they hide it so that it could never be found. Basically, freedom."

"Then I would prefer that to being hunted down by the other humans." the luxray replied with a slow nod. "I believe that the other humans put a tracker in me that would help them with finding us."

"Then a trip back to cerulean is in order, Jenny" Riley ordered "if there is a way to remove a tracker in Cerulean."

"In the pokemon center, there are a few professionals who are known very well for their skill. They will remove this tracker." Jenny nodded.

"This day has been full of happy conveniences." Riley said cheerily "in the midst of a dangerous situation, luck can sometimes pull through. That and oblivious humans-... People."

The group nodded to each other, and Riley picked up the pack he had left with the girls and slung it over his shoulder. He looked at the luxray curiously. Said luxray recalled what he had been trying to say. "Very well. The name they gave me is-"

* * *

 **Snap!**

* * *

Angelica snapped her fingers again, dragging the perspective of any who were watching to her, looking at the four sleeping people. Her little smirk displaying amusement and joy. The girl sent her energy out to wake the others. It was just about time for things to move on here.

Matt's eyes blinked open, as energy rushed through him and he found himself shooting to his feet, nearly leaving the ground. The others in the room had done something similar, and looked around in confusion. The golden girl laughed at his expression.

"What?" she asked him. He frowned at her promptly and crossed his arms over his furry chest. "Oh, come on. That was funny! And there was this whole thing going on that just ended. You've only been here for several hours, and don't you feel refreshed?"

"No." matt replied. Xerneas was shaking her head, as if warning him not to be cross with her. The glowing teenager-looking woman laughed at him, a warm laugh that set his 'danger' meter down a few notches.

"Well then." she said suddenly, whirling "That's my job done. You lot have your fun and your conversation. I may have interrupted something important, but whatever. I'll be off. I'm supposed to be off doing nothing, according to my friend."

Matt blinked. "Who the heck are you?" he inquired.

Angelica turned to wave at Xerneas. "See you, Xerneas." she gave her farewell "I'll come visit at some point."

And then the girl promptly flashed in golden light and vanished. The lot of them stared confusedly at the spot where she had gone, completely unable to do anything else from the sheer confusion at what the heck had just happened and why.

Five minutes later, the adults noticed that Matt was still stood there, and he turned to face them. "What are you doing in my house?" the man, Mark, demanded. Matt was silent for a moment. He had not planned out what he would say. With his face somewhat more… fuzzy, and with weird eyes, he would be pretty hard to recognize.

Matt finally pulled a chair away from the table his parents sat at and sat down in it rather casually. "I came for a visit." he replied blandly "It's been a while since I last saw you both. Not too long, of course. That is to say…" he trailed off.

"I understand your hesitation, Matt." Xerneas spoke up from where she stood. She was still invisible and inaudible to Matt's parents.

"Get out of my house." Mark told Matt threateningly. Marigold seemed more frightened of what this odd being was doing in her house.

"Mark, he looks like a xerneas." She whispered "A legendary pokemon."

This froze Mark up. He looked again at the blue fur on this creature's chest, and the antlers it had… He locked his green eyes on this creature's blue eyes with it's 'X' pupils… "Xerneas, huh? You gonna make my life more difficult than my damn son did? I can tell you right now that my own son beat you to ruining me."

Matt shook his head. "He did not beat me to that." He responded truthfully. "The situation was… Complicated."

Silence followed. The two of them stared in shock, and then Matt's father's expression turned angry indeed. " _He did not beat me to ruining you, he did it at precisely the same time."_ Matt continued in his mind. "I learned the hard way that unless you fix something yourself, everything can turn out for the worst." he continued "Once I learned what pokemon really were, compared to what I had been taught, I could not allow you to continue harming pokemon and treating them the way you did with your business… I don't even know what you were **doing** with the ones that were not bought by trainers for various reasons."

Marigold flinched, and seemed to have a flare of recognition in her eyes. But she glanced at Mark and did not say a word about Matt. Instead, she pointedly looked at her husband. "I have told you repeatedly that we must find another line of work, Mark, but you never paid me any attention."

"Who gives a damn what you thought!?" Mark shouted, angering everyone else in the room "I will not have an **animal** waltz into my house and gloat about ruining my line of work!"

The man thrust away his chair and went to attack Matt on his own. Both his mother and his teacher made to stop him, but Matt himself had his temper. His father had just shown some angry tendencies towards his mother that Matt had never really paid attention to before, as his father was basically his role model back when he was… worse. Now that he was thinking, his memory surfaced of more than one occasion where his father had screamed at his mother, and perhaps he had done worse, Matt did not know.

So when Xerneas and Marigold went to defend Matt, the boy surprised all three of the others by stepping forward and slamming his hoof extension above the back of his hand into his father's gut, making him gag and stagger back.

"Marigold…" Matt muttered "Has he done any worse than screaming at you?"

His mother flinched, as Matt stepped between her and his father. A protective measure, or at least it appeared that way. It made it easier for her to answer. "...Not much." she replied "He does little more than yell at me, and only when I argue, but it has grown tiring. Along with… Matt's disappearance, I feel like I am wearing thin quickly."

She choked up when she mentioned Matt's name. The boy felt a lot of compassion for his mother, having understood that she was not truly to blame for everything that the family had done. The only problem that Matt saw was that she had not gone to help, but perhaps she had been afraid to try. His father seemed to be perfectly all right with abandoning Matt for doing the same.

"You get lost." Matt ordered his unsuspecting father, brandishing the hoof portion of his hand like a gauntlet. The man clutched his gut, looking furious. Realizing that he did not have a choice in the face of this freak xerneas-human mix, a larger, slightly shimmering point in the air, and his own wife, he growled animalistically and stormed out.

He did not come back after several minutes, and Xerneas, still mostly invisible (something about Angelica herself coming along and invading the space with her magical aura disrupted it do a slight degree) wondered what to do with Marigold here. The woman, like Matt, was clearly redeemable.

'Well, that went just perfectly!" a familiar voice sounded from behind them all, making them jump.

"Angelica!?" Xerneas shouted, startling Marigold really badly, as the voice had seemed to come from a ripple in the air. Matt caught his mother as she tripped and nearly fell. "I thought you left!"

"I lied." Angelica shrugged, hopping off the counter where she was again sitting. "I do that. First rule, the doctor lies. Second rule, so does the guardian of magic."

"...Isn't that first one a television character?" Matt asked, scratching his head.

"The difference is I do it because it's funny to watch you make that ever so fitting deer in the headlights look" Angelica continued, poking Xerneas on the snout, which Matt was sure his teacher would not appreciate, but she looked frightened to a degree instead.

Which was confusing, until the words 'guardian of magic' clicked, and he froze. He did not get to say anything about it, however, as Xerneas' invisibility had been knocked out by that touch by Angelica. The Guardian's playfulness had made the legendary **very** visible to Matt's mother.

Matt had to catch his mother again as she nearly fell over again. He set her on her feet, and she looked at him. She peered into his far different eyes, seeing something as familiar in them as she once had. She had felt it very strongly before, and she was certain now.

"M-Matt?"

"Yeah. It's me. I met Xerneas, and… Well, I needed a new life. I went and happened upon one that suited what I was hoping for." Matt nodded slowly, knowing no way to be gentle about it. "It was relatively simple, but startling. I had little warning about it, though the logic made sense."

Marigold was uncertain of what to say. She was looking at her son, and knew it, but he looked so different that if his face had become more like Xerneas' she would not be able to recognize him. She was stunned, frankly. Here were her son, the legendary Xerneas, and this strange yet obviously powerful golden girl on the side, watching the scene with a warm smile.

Eventually, she just crashed into his chest with a hug, glad that her boy has come home, and sorrowful that he had to come home to what he witnessed. Crying into the thicker fur on his chest. Matt was uncertain of what to do in this scenario.

Xerneas approached Angelica whilst the two had their moment. "A-Angelica…" Xerneas greeted the girl nervously "How are you?"

"Oh, don't be so formal, please." Angelica said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I just thought that I could make a few things easier. by spacing out events a bit."

"Easier for whom?" Xerneas asked, careful not to sound too formal. The girl frightened her, with her power. Matt would likely be just as fearful if he knew of her capabilities.

Angelica gave a grin. "Oh, saying that would just be surreal." she answered "no point, really. That wall should stay somewhat intact at least. For now."

"...What wall?"

Angelica walked over to the two family members hugging now, holding four fingers behind her back for a moment, confusing the legendary pokemon even more, and Looked at the two people while standing quite close to them, golden irises looking at the pair with a slightly tilted head, and her smile was quite angelic.

Matt did not know what to do. What could even be done? He did not trust his father to treat her properly. Maybe she could come with them? How? They might be able to work, but he could not force her to come along with him. He would not.

Marigold tried to comprehend what was happening. In a matter of weeks, her life had spiraled far out of control. Her husband had grown angrier and somewhat less stable. Her son had become some sort of legendary pokemon and human hybrid. That same son had friends who were a magic golden girl and the legendary pokemon Xerneas herself. She wondered what was to become of her son, and of her.

"Mom…" Matt murmured "...I don't know what to do. I can't just come back; you know that. I also can't just leave you with father. He could become worse over time. I fear for your safety."

Marigold pulled away and stared at her son, shaken. "Matt…" she whispered "I don't want to put you in a position to decide…"

Angelica gave a 'hmm…' making mother and son bristle. When had she gotten so close to them!?

"Erm… Magic." Xerneas interrupted, flinching before she tried to correct the action. "The two were having a bonding moment."

Angelica shrugged. "Meh. I was just thinking of what we could do to handle the situation whereas everybody is happy and all that. Happiness is fun. Gotta love that emotion. Anyways, Neither of you should probably stick around.

Xerneas looked between Angelica, whom she had also called Magic, and Marigold. The former was looking over the woman, which was odd, considering she looked like an eighteen year old when billions was a better description.

"Idea!" Angelica suddenly put her fist in her palm and backed off. She looked from Matt to Marigold. "Right. I assume that the two of you want to stick together." she continued "and it would probably be tough if Matt was the only one that could talk to Marigold here. That'd be a pain…"

"Angelica, are you considering-"

"Absolutely."

"Considering what?" Matt demanded. If this girl was suggesting doing something to his mother, there was going to be a problem between the two of them. The girl tapped her head a few times with her pointer finger, head tilted again.

"Let's see… We could either make your mother like you. Somewhat, or give her the ability to understand pokemon at least, and can come with you two." Angelica offered.

"Angelica, creating a connection like that is years in the making." Xerneas reminded the girl "I prepared my jewel of life for ten years."

Angelica wasn't listening. She was up close to Marigold again, peering at her. "Hmm… I see… That would be fitting, yes. There are options such as being able to connect more easily at the loss of humanity, or at least most of it, or simply being able to understand pokemon, and not losing humanity, but there wouldn't be much of a relation anymore."

"I don't understand." Marigold and Matt complained in unison. What was this guardian girl blabbing on about?

"Oh, that's easy enough. We can either take her with us like normal, or make her like you, Matt." Angelica finally explained.

"L-like me!?" Matt exclaimed.

"Yep. Well, not exactly, but y'know." Angelica shrugged unhelpfully. He **didn't** know.

Marigold seemed to, however. "She is talking about connecting as a family, which would be easier if we were in similar situations; if I became like you: half pokemon. And then, she said that I might retain my humanity if I wanted, but I wouldn't be able to relate to you." Matt's mother explained.

Matt twitched. "What is that supposed to mean? What kind of choice is that!?"

"A reasonable one, I assume." Marigold replied for Angelica, who had her back turned to the boy at the moment. "I cannot allow my child to go off without some sort of supervision. I have you again, and if I let that change, I could never forgive myself. Mark can sustain himself alone."

"M-mother…" Matt murmured. "I don't want to force you into anything-"

"Enough, my boy." Marigold scolded her child. "I intend to come with you, and as I believe, you will mostly be associated with pokemon. I need to be able to understand that as well. Matt… Do you feel any pain, of being transformed as such?"

Matt was startled. "W-well… No pain, but if feels odd… And I don't feel human, obviously, though Xerneas tells me that with practice I will learn to switch between this form and my human form at will… Eventually."

The woman put her hand on her son's furry shoulder. "I want to help you get through that. Let me share your pain, my child." she coaxed the boy.

Matt blinked a few times, before tears welled up in his eyes. He pulled his mother into a hug, holding her as tightly as possible. The boy was so entirely conflicted. He did not want to let go. Maybe he wouldn't have to.

"To understand properly is to become like those you wish to understand. To preserve is to hang on to a previous life that did have weight. Either option is understandable." Angelica spoke up. Her back was still turned in the scenario. Perhaps she did not want to interrupt this particular one.

"I wish to understand…" Marigold whispered, keeping her son in her grip. "Holding on to the past would be pointless."

"It will take a long time to prepare such a thing, years perha-" Xerneas started to argue, but Angelica held up her hands in preparation to snap her fingers.

"Five seconds." she interrupted. "That is how long it will take. You do not have time to take this decision back, unless you do so right now."

Her warning was met with a nod. "I will do it." Marigold asserted. Though the others could not see it, Angelica's smile widened. Her back turned, nobody could see the happy smile that had she held on her face all this time. What's a little drama, after all?

"Let's do that, then." Angelica responded, and snapped her fingers. Marigold's body instantly glowed with a blinding golden light, making Matt shield his eyes. As the boy stepped away, he watched as his mother was transformed.

True to the words of Magic herself, the process took exactly five seconds, revealing the woman to have completely changed.

She nearly collapsed, and Matt made certain to catch her. Around her waist, her body flowed outwards like a built in dress, with green and white coloring most of her body. She still wore her shirt, though her arms were thinner, smoother. Her hairstyle had changed quite a bit. Her blonde hair had become green. Her eyes had become red. A red spike had protruded from her shirt, cutting through. Her legs, hidden under the dresslike formation of her body, had grown somewhat thinner, though her body shape still looked mostly human. Her face was the same as before, but white colored.

"Your muscle mass seems to have depleted somewhat in the process, though you should be able to defend yourself just fine." Angelica said, suddenly right next to the two. They leaped in surprise again, as she had been a good six meters away before.

Matt suddenly started giving a few chuckles. "If father saw us like this, he would downright panic." he laughed.

"Then perhaps we should leave." Marigold offered.

"That's all fine and dandy." Angelica said, now looking at a piece of art and writing something on a piece of golden metal, like runes on a metal slab. They hadn't even seen her change positions. It was like she wasn't actually there. "Let me explain a few things. Despite the fact that I did not turn you half legendary, your power can easily rival that of a regular gardevoir. You will be able to change back to human with practice, and I enchanted some clothing into that change, so don't worry about that."

She tossed the rune covered plate at the painting of some old man, likely one of Matt's older relatives, who had a scowl on his face. "A little gift for your dad. He'll throw this painting out in no time." she commented as the plate sunk into the painting like it did not exist.

The eyes on the painting suddenly tracked to Matt, making both he and his mother shiver violently. They did not know how to react to that.

"Angelica, how were you able to skip the process of changing someone like that?" Xerneas finally got the courage to ask.

"'cause I wanted to do it." Angelica shrugged. "Now, it's about time that you lot got on your way back to your actual home, which is not here. Off you go, no thanking, no stalling, I can't ward… Oh wait, I **can** ward off your husband from the door he was hiding behind forever. Still, please don't lollygag; I'm getting bored here."

Xerneas froze. "Out. Now!" she commanded. Angelica could threaten to destroy the universe, and it would not be more frightening than if she said she was bored. She grabbed Matt by the arm with her mouth and dragged the boy away quickly. Her ability to walk through walls was transferred via contact to Matt, and by extension, Matt's mother, who Matt held on to as tightly as possible.

Angelica laughed as they fled, brushing a strand of golden hair behind her ear. "Well, that was fun." she commented. She then rounded to face front and center. "Well, I think that's just about it, I guess." she continued, clapping her hands together "That went great, I think. Well, I'll be off, too, and this has gone on for quite a bit. I declare this chapter: Over."

She giggled, and held her right hand up, preparing to snap her fingers. "Until next time."

 **Snap!**

Blackness.

* * *

 **Dammit, Angelica!**

 **Angelica: Aww... What's your problem?**

 **Me: My problem is that the luxray was supposed to be properly introduced, and you interrupted that-**

 **Angelica: What's the problem with a cliffhanger?**

 **Me: in the middle of the chapter? And why, why would you break the fourth wall so brutally? This story does not function like that.**

 **Angelica: It does if I say so. You know that.**

 **Me: Angelica... At least refrain from causing too much trouble. If I could get back to the normal format for now, that would be brilliant.**

 **Angelica: meh, whatever. It's not like I'll be around for a while. Just remember that if I'm around, you can't really stop me.**

 **Me: *flinches* all right...**

 **Angelica: That's settled then! I'm sure this blokes likes your reviews, so go ahead and do that, and I'll be off. What was it he always says? Oh yeah. 'Good day, everyone!' That's better. *Snaps her fingers, and everything stops. For now***


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Ghost Town

**Believe it or not, I have a legitimate excuse for not releasing this five days ago. The reason? This chapter kicked my ass I wrote ten thousand words square, realized that I didn't want to go in that direction, and annihilated every. Single. Word.**

 **So I did it all again. And I did it in a way I wanted to, with subtle hints like I do. Matpat won't save you now!**

 ***Coughs* Alright. I'm going to upload this now, because otherwise I would have to wait for tomorrow. Welcome to the Christmas season.**

 **Anyways... Amber? Where are you? Where is Jango?**

 **...**

 **...Alright. I think I'll be doing the reviews myself today.**

 **Let's start with Raven, because... Wow. Ember is not your favorite, is she? Amusing review. I enjoyed reading that. Thing about magic: it is incredibly convenient, with basically any application. The more complicated the spell, the longer it takes, and the more knowledge you need for it. With limitless time, you would have limitless power. Magic is power. Magic is neutral. Magic is random and convenient, but in this universe, it's not often something you can just use in fast paced combat. When they really need something super convenient, they may not have time for that.**

 **The luxray would basically be an electric flying type. As for Riley, he can't be badass all the time. He has limits, and I have to establish them properly. I'll let you judge his epicness, or him as a person, during this chapter.**

 **Yes. When the guardian of magic is bored, it doesn't matter where you run. If she decides to do something to you, you're screwed. Let's hope she doesn't turn my audience into pokemon on a whim with a snap of her fingers, shall we? That would just get complicated, and then I would have to write a whole new story if she did... Goodness. I'm bogged down enough as it is.**

 **Sorry, West... I did say I was trying to shorten them. To be fair, there is a lot of stuff to cover, and this story is not really close to being over either.**

 **I won't say much about the cameos except for the fact that characters like Amber are not the same as their TAC counterparts. I can't answer specifics, in fact I already explained the winged luxray in my roundabout way. As I said, Matpat won't save you now. Unless you managed to convince him, which would be impressive.**

 **Ha! Nicely done, ZLAXE and Arceus. Thank you both for the entertaining review.  
**

 **I did indeed miss one of the people who review for me, Nerdy. Only worry about my mental health if I tell you to, because that means that Angelica got to me with her randomness.**

 **Thank you, Phillip Harbindinger.**

 **I must say it, Zero Lunar, that I only used a gardevoir for Marigold's hybrid status because I did not have a psychic for my character set and because it also fit into the fairy type group of characters there. You can just click the follow button to recieve notifications of updates if you want, you know. That being said, your method will work as well, in theory, though memory is the key to that particular venture. Thank you for reviewing.**

 **Lucarioking1008: Matt is called the child of life. The title for a human with a direct connection to a legendary pokemon is called a 'child of' followed by the element of the legendary. It does not mean that they are literally the legendary's child at all, just want to make that clear.**

 **Anyways, that's all of the reviews. Thank you all for reviewing, and enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen: Ghost Town**

Walking through the woods, making even better time than they had leaving, Matt, Marigold, and Xerneas traveled, having been joined by the four seasons of deerlings on their way back. Marigold busied herself speaking to the deerling, having been excited to understand them with total ease. Matt however, kept grumbling about how surreal the whole experience was.

"Why did you even drag us for literal **miles** to get away from the golden girl?" Matt asked finally, keeping pace with Xerneas.

Xerneas gave a wince that turned into a smile. "When the guardian of magic gets bored, literally anything could happen to you. it's best to get away as fast as possible. Life, on the other hand, prefers to start up a conversation when she becomes bored. Though she still has reportedly played some of her own tricks."

"But dragging us in a run for an **hour**?" Matt complained.

"Yes."

The xerneas hybrid sighed. This was one of the freakiest experiences of his life. They were almost home, which was a plus, his new home that was also Xerneas' home. Otherwise, there was nothing normal about the trip. Defend a butterfree form a trainer that would have caught her and probably mistreat her. Visit his parents, walk in on a conversation about him of all things, connect with his mother more than his father for once, get interrupted by a random girl in all gold and knocked out, wake up, confront his parents, recognized by his mother, interrupted by the golden girl **again** , his mother gets turned into a human-gardevoir mix with the same attributes as him for the most part, his father pretty much gets left alone, with only a cursed painting to keep him company, which felt like justice to Matt.

And then Angelica had kept spouting all sorts of weird and random stuff. "Xerneas, why was Angelica being so… Random?" Matt asked.

Xerneas pondered that question. She remembered a few things, but the explanation was not so completely understandable. "That is… Difficult. As far as I understand it, the guardians are the sentient mind behind each element in the multiverse. Their true bodies are comprised of every bit of that force. Their minds too, may be affected. Life is calm, giving, yet can be random at times with how it reacts to things. The guardian of life shows herself to be generous, modest, yet capable of pulling pranks and being random at times. Magic is a different story. Magic is entirely random, entirely neutral, entirely by itself, on its own level. So separate from the other elements…"

"...That she too would be random and entirely different from the others, and a prankster." Matt finished, seeing his teacher pause.

Xerneas nodded. "Yes. I stopped because I know that not all aspects of magic are reflected in Angelica. The neutrality piece I mentioned. There is no true 'evil' magic, and no true 'good' magic. It is entirely up to the user how to use the power they have. Angelica often does make it very clear that 'good' and 'evil' are purely opinionated aspects of existence, which may be the neutrality aspect kicking in. She dislikes needless loss of life, and loss of life in general. That is all I know of her."

"She was very hard to understand."

"Most certainly. Her randomness… I have never encountered a more random and volatile being, though she happens to be a friend. She is… Difficult."

Matt was silent for a while as they neared their home in the woods. Before they could see the rippling gateway, he turned. "Mother?" he asked.

"What is it, sweetie?" Marigold asked. Matt was uncertain of how to word his question for a while.

"...How are you so calm about this?" he finally found what was bothering him so. His mother seemed to be perfectly fine with the situation, even somewhat happy, despite the fact that her lifestyle was going to completely change for the rest of her life.

She did not answer at first. She simply smiled at him for a time, but eventually, Marigold made her decision on what words to use. "I am simply accepting that life will change, and I can be happy because that change will allow me to stay with you again, and this time, I get the option of understanding you better. I also feel that you can understand me better as well."

Matt smiled, understanding. "I intend to understand you much better, mother." he replied, bringing a broad smile to her face.

"This is the entrance." Xerneas announced, facing the twisted gateway in the older trees. She walked straight through, followed closely by the four seasons. Matt took his mother by the hand and led her through the rippling gateway.

Marigold saw the beautiful clearing filled with patches of flowers and numerous different species of trees as if the environmental requirements for each tree was completely irrelevant here. Flowers bloomed, trees stood tall… Everything looked impressive and peaceful and generally beautiful.

"There is everything here." she murmured "Every species of plant I have ever known of strewn about, mixed into the undergrowth, and so many more as well. This is your home?"

Matt smiled as he walked past her. "This is **our** home." he clarified with a smile that Marigold treasured. He was evidently so much happier now.

The xerneas hybrid walked over to a young tree several feet away from the ring and pointed his palm towards it again. Marigold saw her son unleash a small stream of green energy into the plant slowly. She watched it visibly grow, and her eyes widened. Xerneas was the live giver. Matt was now also a life giver. Her son has such a responsibility, and he seemed to enjoy having it.

He had grown so much just by being separated from his father for a few weeks. A weight settled on her, and she was not certain whether she was feeling a sadness or a happy understanding. Perhaps both. She walked over and sat down on the opportune white boulder in the center of the clearing.

Matt was focused on his task as to avoid causing some sort of problem. He did not know if he really **could** screw up, but he was not giving this growing tree a chance to fail on him. He did want to at least learn how to become human again, just in case he had to hide or something. He would also have to know how to change back.

So it was Xerneas who checked up on her. "Is everything beginning to…" she started, not exactly knowing how to continue.

"Hit me?" Marigold asked "Yes, I suppose. My son has a great responsibility now, and we are both no longer fully human, with abilities more along the lines of the pokemon we seem to be mixed with. I know very well that things are going to be this way… probably forever. I worry, Xerneas. It's worrying that my son isn't showing any outside lasting reaction to being this way."

Xerneas was going to reply, but the deerling beat her to it. "He's fine, miss!" Spring exclaimed, bouncing up to the gardevoir hybrid. "He's been acting just fine for a long time. I haven't seen him act in an unhappy about his situation!"

"What Spring says is true." Xerneas confirmed "Your child has consistently acted in a manner that befits the situation, and I have never seen him look or speak resentfully, and certainly not about his position in life. It is my belief that he truly does enjoy the concept of having an entirely new start."

Marigold watched her son grow the tree until it was about one-point-five times his size before it apparently stopped responding. "Well, I don't know how high you want this thing to be before we move on to transformations." Matt called with his back turned, inspecting his work.

"Did you intentionally add those leaves to the tree?" Xerneas asked, noticing that a few of the leaves were oddly shaped and a different shade of green.

Matt groaned. "Dammit. I was focusing so intently… Unless that caused me to accidentally influence its shape in places."

Xerneas chuckled. "I have never heard of such a thing. I am simply going to assume that it's just an odd tree."

Matt looked over his shoulder, giving a grin. He was certainly happy; it is not physically possible to fake a true smile of contentment. His mother saw that smile, and that weight lifted. Worry was a thing of the past living here.

"I think you are right, Xerneas." Marigold replied. "I believe he **does** like his new start. I do, too."

* * *

Yellow sighed after crushing the next trainer in her battle, before sending them off with the tip she gave everyone she sent off: "Understand your pokemon and treat them well, and you will prevail."

'Prevail'. That's a nice word.

One thing many people do not understand about the work of a gym leader is the fact that the battle is more about learning a lesson. Some leaders choose to have their trainers truly prove strength, but many others had something to teach their trainers that determined whether they passed or not.

Yellow's pokemon were too powerful to lead the match on battle style, being capable of holding their own against the pokemon of the elite four or even the champion. So, she chose the only thing that truly fit who she was. Yellow judged whether to throw the match or crush her opponent by determining how the trainer treated their pokemon. An abusive trainer would never, **ever** make it to the pokemon league for even a shot at being champion. Someone who never took the time to truly understand them at least would be told to try and understand them.

It was effective. And it was almost satisfying to tear down an abuser of pokemon who somehow made it to the gym that was famed as the toughest, leading most trainers to take it on last.

To keep that record, Yellow also had to take down any without seven badges. That is how it worked to preserve the image that made people easier to categorize. Those that were early and treated their pokemon very well and understood them were told that they were very skilled but that they should grow more, experience more.

Only the bad apples knew of the Viridian gym leader as stern and even dangerous.

Yellow placed her pokeballs into the healing machine and watched as their bodies were restored to full strength. Fascinating machines, these. The technology of a pokeball shrunk down the pokemon, or turned them into energy to store them in a safe manner with dozens of failsafes. At that reduced size, the amount of energy required for the healer to restore them was far less than it should be.

They broke the laws of physics with technology, but whatever. What mattered was that Ratty and Omny were thanking her about a minute later. She could of course have healed them herself, but there were trainers watching her. She should probably ask somebody to move the healer further into the back room so that she could do that herself, but that would not be 'up to code'.

Her next battle was against a girl. She looked sort of young, but Yellow knew she had all seven badges. The girl sent out a starmie and a machamp. When she had four badges, Yellow's golem had flattened the electric type and flying type of the girl.

"I know you use that golem of yours." she stated "and this time, I know how to handle them. My friends and I are going to crush you!"

Her pokemon agreed with her, confident, powerful. Yellow was the perfect person for her job; she analyzed her opponent's pokemon and saw that they trusted her and they were friends with her, true to her terminology. Yellow smiled. She was powerful, and she was good. Ambitious as well.

She hefted Ratty and Dody up, deciding not to use Gravvy this time. Even so, she whispered to her pokemon: "We're going to throw this one. Make it close, all right? Don't go overboard and let her beat you. She's ready to advance."

Out loud, she proclaimed: "I met you eight months ago, when you were young enough to have been halfway done yet not having learned who you were as a person. You are different now. I judge that this will be close, very close."

She got a grin in return, and Yellow released her pokemon. The younger girl was surprised that the mystery gym leader was using different pokemon, but mentally scolded herself for making assumptions.

The battle ensued. The girl realized that something was far different than last time. "As you can see, I have a variety of strategies." Yellow said as Dody kept Stargaze the starmie on edge to the side while Ratty approached the machamp, confidence in his eyes.

" _What's she doing? Champ is a powerful fighting type, and her raticate is not following orders and approaching my fighting type… He looks confident. Crap! He must have some sort of move to deal with this!"_

"Stay on edge, Champ! Be wary of tricks!" she shouted, and the machamp went on defense rather than the offensive plan.

"Stargaze! Psybeam!"

"Yes ma'am!" Stargaze replied, launching a large beam of flickering light from her core at the dodrio, who was going far too fast for such an attack to hit her. Dody was using agility to sip around Stargaze constantly.

"Champ, take that raticate down, but do it carefully!" This told the machamp to start using regular attacks, along with some hidden mach punches hidden within there. Several of the strikes were fakes.

Eyes widened all over the stands full of trainers watching as Ratty did not fall for any of the fake punches and easily twisted out of the way of the real ones. How was he doing this?

The challenger's eyes turned to Yellow for a moment. The girl was tapping her foot to the rhythm of Champ's punches.

" _How does she know!?"_ she wondered "Champ! Back down for a moment!"

Champ obediently did as he was told to watch the smug normal type tensely, as Stargaze took a page out of Yellow's book to attack without a command. Dody still managed to dodge it, her heads twisting away from the water pulse used to cut her off, and the three headed bird was forced to leap away from the next psybeam.

"Champ! Earthquake!"

The shout had Yellow smiling. Her challenger had figured it out relatively quickly.

The rumbling earth made too much noise for Yellow to send her pokemon sound signals to warn Ratty of the real punches versus the fake ones. The girl ordered Stargaze to attack the slower rat pokemon while he became disoriented by both the powerful ground type attack and the powerful psybeam, and Ratty let himself be knocked out.

Dody, unaffected by the earthquake despite being grounded, was not disoriented.

" _We need to knock one of them out with apparent difficulty and then be defeated for it to be believable."_ Yellow and Dody thought in tandem, Yellow pointing at the machamp. Taking out the fighting type would certainly be believable.

Having used agility a lot, Dody raced in with a peck attack ready (with triple the resulting power because she had three beaks) and sent the machamp flying with nasty looking wounds in his stomach. Stargaze began spinning like a razor blade and leaped at the dodrio, who backed off.

"Launch a hydro pump-water pulse-rapid spin combo!"

" _Welp."_ Yellow muttered in her head " _we're all about to get wet."_

Interesting fact: Water pulse has three variants; two above ground, one under water. It can be launched as a sphere of energy, which many pokemon can use despite not being a water type. The second is a little more discriminating in who is capable of using it, but not by much. This second one does in fact materialize and launch waves of water outward at full force in all directions. Rubbish against flying enemies, as the attack moved along the ground. Forcing a hydro pump into the ground at the same time, however, made the amount of water used **massive**.

Champ was going to be taken out by this. Dody would be pretending to barely stand, but she had not been hit just yet. Yellow wondered at the decision, but she then focused and felt the memories of this giel's pokemon, who recognized the strategy in such a destructive move. They appreciated that she was not afraid to use it for their sakes, as they wanted to win this battle as well.

Yes. This girl was going to face the elite four, or at least victory road.

The resulting waves from the added hydro pump reached the ceiling, acting as a larger, more widespread surf attack. The wall of water spread from the center of the room, and every person watching screamed. There was nothing they could possibly do in time.

Yellow was blown back, though she had enough training to remain on her feet when she skidded to a stop. Well, slammed to a stop. The walls of her gym were **not** cushiony.

Dody was obviously still standing, but she had been slammed brutally into a wall and was feigning exhaustion. " _Thank you."_ Yellow thought.

The girl who was to be given a shot at the pokemon league proceeded to finish off the 'tired' dodrio with yet another hydro pump. The starmie had exhausted itself, but Stargaze was victorious. One might expect that to be in air quotes, but Yellow felt that victory in her gym was truly determined by the trainer themselves. The battle… That was just a formality.

Yellow handed her badge to the girl with a smile, returning her pokemon simultaneously. "Well done." she complimented the girl. The reaction she got was happy, thankful, and above all else, grateful. Grateful to her own pokemon. Yellow could not read her mind, but her eyes on her starmie and downed machamp was evidence enough.

"Keep treating them well, and you can be a great trainer." Yellow commented as she left, waving. Winners left happy, losers left either calm, understanding the message, or angry, not accepting the message.

And that was only the twenty fifth battle of the day. Yellow had handed out **one** badge. These children did not treat their pokemon badly for the most part, but there was no true connection between them. Nothing to lead them to greatness.

It was going to be a long day.

Yellow sighed in a negative manner as she walked to the healing machine to see that the thing was working just fine. She was very glad that she had gotten the waterproofed version of this thing. Well, that giovanni bugger had done it when he somehow ran this gym without being caught as the leader of team rocket. Somehow. He ran it as a ground type gym, and oddly enough he had done his job properly while he still had it, his battle being a true test of power.

Ground type gyms are just begging for water types to show up. Yellow was glad to have kept this more expensive healing machine despite her lack of type preference. Despite the fact that she only had one ground type, the building design implied ground types because Yellow had never bothered to remodel the outside.

Yellow sighed a third time and continued on with her battling. Battles raged until around lunch, and Yellow called for a break, made certain that the people in the stands knew their order for battles, and proceeded to walk into her room again to make some food.

Lunch proved to be quick and mediocre; she had a job to do. She would take her time with dinner and breakfast. That was her schedule. Her pokemon usually made conversation with her, but… Yellow was often preoccupied. Battling distracted the girl from wondering whether or not Riley was okay.

She had walked away from him, and mere days later, he takes on an entire fucking power plant full or armed people, either with guns or various chemicals, or even silk-esk gloves that manipulate **fire**. Riley had won, but that victory was impromptu, and probably involved a lot of luck.

How she was regretting letting the boy off on his own to nearly get himself killed. Occasionally she would wonder if this was his form of revenge for walking away from him. He cared that Yellow was in danger. He **cared** that he could not be there to protect her.

And yet, they both had jobs to do. How could she possibly justify sticking around when Mute could show up and defeat Riley anyways? They would both die. Maybe they could run, but the only true sanctuary was the populated places, putting other innocent people in danger.

No matter what she chose, she lost. Yellow was not used to losing, and not on such a colossal scale. Either she was in danger, or both Riley and she was in danger. At the same time, Yellow was missing her new friend. He had made quite the impact on her. Not even Red, who had started her career basically, was able to understand pokemon word for word, though he was one of the best at communicating with his pokemon anyways.

She hated not knowing what was right and what was wrong.

Her pokemon expressed their worries for her in open conversation. They knew that she always heard their thoughts. Eventually, after being around a pokemon for a long time, they might as well be speaking aloud. Otherwise, she could hear it, but only got the basic idea unless she listened.

The day passed somewhat quickly, Yellow noticed. Battling is an impressive time-waster, and it was her job. At least she had all the time in the evening to make a proper dinner. Her bed was going to be great as well.

It looked like it was time for another early night.

* * *

Riley and Amber were laughing together about something. Some sort of joke that they had managed to make. Scarlet was giggling to herself, but Kurenai was preoccupied trying to make conversation with the quieter and more… preoccupied luxray.

"Gauge…" Kurenai began again, but the luxray was a bit busy trying to learn how to fly. he was actually not too bad at learning despite having zero real practice. He did faceplant every once in a while, which Amber took the time to point out with a laugh.

"Laugh it up, furball." Gauge muttered five minutes later, his face a lighter color due to the dust resting on it. He sneezed, shaking his head to be rid of that dust, which in turn caused Kurenai to sneeze from the dust cloud resulting from it. "Anyways, what were you trying to say, ah…"

" _He forgot my name!"_ Kurenai thought with a sense of crushing defeat. She had an anime storm cloud above her head at the side of the path, facing away.

"...What's gotten into her?" Gauge asked, sweatdropping.

"I dunno." Riley replied. The boy walked over and lifted the absol up like a puppy. She looked at him surprised, while he asked "What's up, Kurenai?" he asked.

"Well… I was trying to talk to Gauge, and it's not going well." Kurenai replied reluctantly, not bothering to struggle against the boy holding her. Riley grinned at her, and her eyes widened. "Not like that! I just wanted to know more about him, and I… Well, I was shocked that he didn't even remember my name."

"Suuuure…" Amber teased. Riley, however, clamped his hand over her snout for the moment while keeping Kurenai in one arm.

"Gauge?" he asked "Meet Kurenai. Kurenai meet Gauge. Gauge, you've been trying to learn how to fly since the moment we left, and while you're getting better, not one of us really know you yet and frankly, we **all** want to get to know you better. It'll help in the future. So just walk and talk with us for a while, alright? You can go back to flying lessons after we are through lavender town."

Gauge nodded. "Alright." he decided. "Sorry, Kurenai. It was the first time I was able to fly."

She smiled as Riley put her down. "I get it. Thanks, Gauge."

"Don't mention it."

Riley sighed, releasing Amber's snout. Disaster averted. That one, at least. Amber was not happy with him at the moment. She would get over it. She did use it as an excuse to whack him with her paw. He chuckled at the eevee's antics, and her mock glare expressed her own humor, though she would never admit it.

"...Why did Kurenai go red when Riley grinned at her?" the naive Scarlet inquired, ears twitching at the sounds of the wildlife around them. Riley casually scratched her behind the ears in an attempt to alleviate the group from having that discussion.

Amber, however, was **not** about to let that slide. "Riley was joking that Kurenai was crushing on Gauge" she explained in an intentionally casual manner. Both the aforementioned pokemon stiffened next to them while Scarlet nodded. "And Kurenai denied it **instantly**." Amber continued "What do you think that means?"

"She's being rude…" Kurenai muttered.

"...Yep." Gauge replied.

"Oh!" Scarlet exclaimed "I get it!"

"She gets it. Wonderful." Gauge muttered.

"So very incorrect." Kurenai muttered, her outgoing nature replaced by whatever that was that she just took on for a moment.

"Yep." Gauge confirmed.

Amber's brow rose. "They're getting along pretty well already."

"Gauge is like two and a half times her size." Scarlet pointed out.

" **Thank you!** " the two topic points of the conversation chorused.

" _Kurenai just… flips her personality over sometimes."_ Riley thought with a sweatdrop, hoping that this surreal experience would stop along with the conversation. He didn't need the Kurenai that refused to take a bath and fought him tooth and nail and horn to stay out of the water.

At least the two were making friends already with their mutual disapproval of Amber's shenanigans. "Success." Amber muttered evilly, using Riley's cheek to support her so that she could use her forepaws in the stereotypical evil hand rubbing. Or paw rubbing.

"Oh, friendship wasn't your goal." Riley refuted.

"It wasn't." Amber agreed.

"I don't even…" Scarlet rubbed her eyes with her paws.

"How come you can use your paws for gestures with total ease!?" Amber complained. Everyone laughed. Rily resorted to scratching the irate eevee behind the ears. "I hate that that makes me calm… That feels good." Amber continued, pressing her cheek against Riley's hand.

Riley sent a glance over at Scarlet, and then at the other two. "It's so **easy**!" he proclaimed, starting up some laughter of various enthusiasm, from Scarlet and Kurenai giggling to Gauge's low chuckle. The luxray was really warming up to them quickly. It likely had something to do with the fact that Riley understood his words perfectly.

The pokemon translator looked down at Lavender town, which was looming in the distance. Literally looming. It felt so quiet still. He could see cars moving about, but in the dying light of the day, it was hard to make each individual one out for itself among all of the lights.

At the same time, it was hard to see the lights. Like a sort of shroud covered them.

"That place looks creepy... " Scarlet whispered.

"We're going there anyways." Riley asserted, starting to walk down the path into Lavender Town. "This city is the crossroads to get to that large city to the west, and the path down to some other town. I don't even remember their names. Oh well."

"I think it was Saffron, that big one to the west." Scarlet supplied.

"And the other one was… Fuschia, maybe?" Kurenai wondered.

"Thank you." Riley nodded.

Down in the city, things felt **very** wrong.

It was like things were muted or something. They could hear each other just fine, but anything not within ten feet of them was barely audible. People went about their business in what felt like slow motion but was actually a perfectly normal pace. The place was light enough, but things were still dim. Street lights flickered slowly. The greatest light was provided by fire, like the fire Riley saw in some of the houses he passed walking through the neighborhood sections. Firelight seemed unaffected by this gloomy atmosphere.

"I hate this place…" Scarlet whispered.

"Stay close to me." Riley ordered "If I can't hear you, I might not notice anything is wrong."

"Understood." Gauge nodded.

"Oh, that won't happen, dear."

Riley whipped around, staff prepared to strike, only to see an ancient looking human lady. He grumbled out an expletive and sheathed his weapon. "Really, lady. You could have lost your head doing that."

"You would not have struck."

"Neither of us know that." Riley refuted "I have been ambushed plenty of times recently." He merely received a small, thin smile in response.

"I was informing you that those close to you will not be affected by the ethereal gloom that shrouds Lavender." the woman stated "You see how your friends that accompany you show no real signs of being affected by the lack of light."

Riley looked at Amber, and Amber looked back. It was true; they could see each other clear as day. The setting sun was casting its glow on their fur and skin respectively. It was like looking at a grayscale photo with a single colored object in it. They stood out.

"Right, but we still need to-"

"The silence will not affect those close to you either. Those whose stories do not intertwine are hidden from one another." This assurance followed by a cryptic explanation did little to help them understand, but they got the basic idea; they could hear and see each other just fine.

"...Thank you." Riley nodded, letting his guard down. There was no danger from this woman. He felt that she was a much calmer person than he was, at least. She gave him a slight bow, and stood there as we took a few steps back. Riley waved without looking back. Kurenai decided to give the woman at least some sort of goodbye…

But there was nobody there.

* * *

"Riley!" Kurenai jumped into Riley's arms **again**. "The paintings in that art store are looking at me through the window!"

"Something is seriously fucking wrong with this place." Riley muttered, scratching Kurenai behind the horn and calming her down and making her feel somewhat better. As they walked, things just kept getting **weirder**. The locals too seemed to be utterly used to walking around in a haunted city that seemed to double as a fucking pokemon graveyard. Seriously. Every set of nine blocks had one field of graves, and only a few of those were human graves.

"Riley, can we never come here again?" Scarlet asked.

Riley nodded mutely. This time around, he decided that Kurenai was going to stay in his arms. The shivering absol was scared out of her wits by this point. Too many things were moving that should not move. Too many inexplicable scenes.

Amber and Scarlet were different levels of put off. Scarlet would occasionally bury her face in her paws or Riley's neck when something creepy happened out of the blue that they could barely describe. Amber was more stoic about it, but she kept flinching.

Gauge and Riley were merely uncomfortable but as long as none of these things happened right next to them they would not act out. Riley's fight response would probably initiate, and Gauge's slightly modified 'zap all of the things' response would probably boot up as well.

Two paranoid boys and three varying degrees of frightened girls found things getting worse as they approached the major graveyard. They collectively wondered why this town was a freaking go-to for burying dead pokemon. The amount of human graveyards was miniscule in comparison.

Eventually, they went ahead on interrogating people. Riley would almost tell them to ignore the wings if they looked, but they hardly seemed surprised. Perhaps they thought it was another apparition. Less of an interrogation and more of a confused conversation, as the people there responded rather blandly to demands.

Riley learned that the people who lived here had pretty much lived here their entire lives. most others cannot handle the town. This ghostly aura the town was surrounded in was actually the reason anything was built here at all. Things that wished to hide were gladly accepted from all parties into this neutral town, as those that would wish to destroy them would be deterred by that same aura.

From abused pokemon to war refugees during a war, all were safe here unless they were to leave or do something to jeopardize the town, and the town's aura also attracted **all** of the ghost types. In Kanto, ghost types were scarce in the wild because they were so attracted to this place. Regular ghosts would appear as well; in most places the spirits of the dead would dissipate, but around here, they tended to stick around. A great amount of them were even happy enough watching the world go by.

Ghosts tended to be invisible outside this sort of ghostly aura around the town. Pokemon were buried here so that their ghosts could continue to exist if they wished, and then they could pretty much walk around the world or float or whatever.

" _That is incredible."_ Riley thought, smiling " _To think that humans could be so generous to pokemon. Every pokemon grave here is a show of kindness. Incredible."_

Riley's faith in humanity having spiked a bit, the group continued to travel. Kurenai managed to start walking on her own again (the poor absol had really been terrified). Amber tried to speak to some of the apparitions in some of the graveyards, which seemed to have become easier to see when you knew what you were supposed to be looking at, and a few actually waved right back.

It turned the eerie village into something rather cheerful, if the colors weren't so dull because of the odd effect cast upon the area.

Eventually, they went and got something to eat. They found an interesting outdoors food place with a blazing fire pit. The bonfire was surrounded by odd paper things, and altogether kept the gloom from reaching the area at all. It caught their eye because it was so colorful compared to everything else in their line of sight.

Plus, Gauge could actually go there without being in the way in an indoors restaurant.

They ate their food (which was very unique, yet still impressive) and stayed by the fire for a while, as the owner of the restaurant asked them to.

"Better than the garbage they give me in the lab." Gauge commented as he laid near the fire. He was allowing some of his focus to slip, to relax, which meant his pelt and tail was giving off a nice light show of electricity. It mingled with the light from the fire at interesting, sporadic intervals.

Riley tossed Scarlet a cherri berry without really looking, which the electric type caught and chomped down on. She seemed to be fine with staying near Gauge; her body absorbing some of the electricity that Gauge was releasing. The pichu's electricity was acting weird at all times. She kept burning herself, and she was absorbing more energy than was natural, yet she seemed just fine on the outside.

Riley's mind was on that as they walked into a shop to restock on foodstuffs for their journey. Amber noticed some disks. on display. About half a foot in diameter, and in several colors.

"What're those?" she pointed at them. Riley looked over at the wall and shrugged.

"Those, child, are technical machines. They instruct a pokemon on how to use certain techniques using a mixture of psychic energy and technological backup programs due to the immunity of dark types." the old lady manning the shop stated. Riley eyed the labels.

"Specific techniques are typically more precise…" he muttered "but I don't see a reason to get any."  
Scarlet was the one to disagree.

"Well… Right now, I can't defend myself, and I don't know if Amber can do that either." she reasoned. Riley's mind went to that odd day when Amber showed some really **weird** tricks during her little breadstick episode.

He shuddered at the memory. That had not been fun. "...Alright, you guys. Pick something, I guess, if you want to.

Kurenai abstained; she did not like fighting. Gauge decided that he would rather just use discharge and waste everything. Scarlet looked at descriptions and decided that charge beam would be nice to have if she could fix her electricity, and Amber chose a normal type move that she refused to show the others, showing a level of embarrassment at whatever would make it effective.

"I'll just say it's not attract, before you ask that." Amber stated, walking off with the thing in her mouth. The disks themselves were only labeled with the number, which was quite annoying.

Riley, meanwhile, struck up a casual conversation with a rather obvious undertone of ' _these technical machines had better not hurt pokemon during use, or so help me I will take steps to entirely shut down production of these things.'_

After that was cleared up, Riley payed for the two technical machines. Amber snuck off to use it, which was unnecessary, but even so, she had brought back the used disk looking content. Scarlet, on the other hand, gave Riley a chance to see how they worked. In fact, the only thing they had to do was press it to their heads, which practically uploaded the information into their heads.

If they started acting off, Riley was coming right back here. He swore to it.

Scarlet kept putting her paws together, generating some sparks, before yanking them apart with minor burns. Riley had to have a discussion with her about waiting until they could fix whatever was up with the plasma she was generating before she launched any beams of electricity.

Amber, on the other hand, waited until the others were not paying attention before testing her attack, a crimson color setting her tail aglow for an instant before she stopped wasting energy. She gave a smile before she followed and jumped onto Riley's shoulder again.

Their next stop was the tower. It had used to be a memorial for more dead pokemon, but when the occupants of lavender town had realized that having not actually buried the pokemon there, and simply having headstones for them, the ghosts did not actually thrive there with the exception of ghost type pokemon. A particular few older residents remembered where all of the pokemon were buried somehow, and with the help of the ghosts themselves, placed those headstones in their proper places and turned this building into a radio tower of all things.

"People must love creepy interference." Amber muttered.

"I wouldn't put it past this town." Riley agreed.

They made sure everything was in order there (because Riley was technically a police officer with an obligation to make a regular checkup on things) and the group decided that they would in fact have to spend the night here.

It's very late now." Riley muttered.

Kurenai froze. "You're not saying with have to go to **sleep** in this town!?" she yowled

"Hey, the ghosts seem to fall into the categories of pranksters or nice and calm." Riley shrugged. Kurenai decided that she would rather walk about during the night (she could see just fine anyways) and tried to move towards the south, where the exit was apparently.

Riley followed her, chasing her down because she started to run. By the time they got to the checkpoint in the small town, Kurenai was trying desperately to get out of ghost town. "Kurenai!" Riley protested as she continued through the building "Yellow told me that the route south of Lavender was made almost entirely of-"

Kurenai burst into open air, the moonlight leaving a much different impact on the environment. The girl froze, shivering. She looked utterly horrified, eyes wide and shivering. Riley skidded to a stop behind her.

"...Water." Riley finished.

* * *

The hotel was nice, comfortable, and had everything they needed.

It was also the creepiest place ever with green flames for lights that did not exude heat, a general black and blue coloring, and the fact that it did not get rid of the ghostly aura.

Was it really too much to hope for that the night would pass by without incident?

Yes, actually. When the gengar and haunter faded into view with everyone asleep, or so they thought, they had one of their biggest pranks planned (of course).

They did not expect Riley to remain awake. the boy went from lying down to crouched on the top of the bed with his staff in the ghost type's face. "Don't try it." he snarled. He tried to force the pokemon back, and realized (duh) that the weapon went right through the pokemon without injury. Until they attacked, Riley could not harm them.

The redhead swore as the gengar sneered at him, have a hearty laugh, and put his arms forward. Riley expected an attack, but his staff did not block anything. No, what happened was that the background changed greatly and the beds disappeared, depositing the lot of them onto the floor.

Kurenai, unfortunately, chose that time to wake up. The absol scrambled to her feet and saw the giggling or chuckling ghost types, and cowered away. She saw that the surroundings were generally terrifying and screamed horror game level, and she made her way to Riley as quickly as possible.

While Riley tried to comfort her, telling her that the pokemon would not try to hurt her, the aforementioned ghosts vanished. The boy's other companions awoke to Riley trying to comfort the absol by scratching behind her horn and murmuring encouragement to her. The others looked at their surroundings next.

Scarlet soon joined Kurenai in being comforted, while Gauge declared the blood dripping from the wall was fake due to its smell. Nobody asked how he knew the smell of blood so well. Amber was exploring the room on her own, before declaring that the only exit was the 'creepy corridor of creepiness', as she said, and after a moment of being still, went to make certain that Scarlet and Kurenai were all right.

Eventually, Riley had actually gotten the absol to stand by him. "I have a feeling that we're going to have to walk around here." Riley admitted "This is going to be an illusion. I don't think that they will actually hurt us. They'll just scare us instead. Stay as close to me as you can, and we should get through this okay."

The group gathered around him, Gauge suppressing his voltage to avoid electrocuting any of the others. Then, they slowly walked into the hallway. Needless to say, Kurenai **almost** began to regret just taking her chances in the water-filled route south of Lavender. That being said…

She was contemplating what would happen when the **floor** disappeared under her. She was gone in an instant, down into darkness as Riley gave a yell of fury. The boy, despite incredible speed and reaction time, found his hands striking solid, mossy cobblestone.

The boy began to strike the rock to no avail. Gauge ordered the others to step back and proceeded to strike the ground with enough voltage to vaporize somebody. He watched as the smoke cleared, panting. He stood in shock as he saw that the ground was in perfect condition.

Riley hands clenched. These ghosts were going to experience pain that they had never dreamed of before if Kurenai did not come back to him. With Amber and Scarlet on his shoulders, he was forced to carry on because they had to get out somewhere. With more terrifying things on the way, some of them had to involve doors.

"We're in a damn haunted house." Amber muttered as they emerged into a massive room with a haunting feel. "This is a legitimate haunted house."

"At least there are doors." Riley muttered, as he took a right and another right instantly. This one might lead him back to Kurenai.

If it didn't have a Arceus-damn keyhole in it.

Riley swore so badly that the rest of the group would have considered stuffing a soap bar in his mouth. He did not bother with a key and just kicked at the door with a power that would have sent a pokemon the size of Gauge flying. Nothing.

"A haunted **invulnerable** house." Riley muttered "with damned keyholes."

"It's worse." Amber muttered.

"This place is meant to frighten us." Gauge deducted. "But why would the way be closed?"

"Because Riley hates locked doors, can't use keys properly, and he knows that Kurenai's in here somewhere." Scarlet offered. The three pokemon looked at Riley, realizing that he probably was very, **very** afraid of losing the absol, or any of them. He hid it under the anger that this was happening in the first place.

They were forced to move on. Riley flung open the next door and instantly thorned vines lunged out of the darkness and attacked. Riley beat at them, but his staff and body made no impact at all, and this time he heard Scarlet's scream as the pichu was grabbed. He kept a good grip on her, keeping her as close as possible, but the ghostly vines seemed to transfer that intangibility to the pichu and yank her away. The door slammed shut, smacking Riley across the room without hesitation.

He collapsed on the ground. This was already getting to him. He knew that they would be safe, but he couldn't protect him. He had **promised**! He had **promised** that he would not let anything happen to them, but against ghosts… He was **useless**. Amber was shocked to realize that the boy was near tears from this. Anger could only hide that for so long before his failures brought him down.

At this point, Gauge and Amber agreed that they would likely be separated from the boy as well. They got him to get up and continue looking. Doors were flung open to various torments that they endured without a word.

But they were having no luck in finding anything. Not even a measly key.

* * *

Kurenai fell, for about five seconds. The poor absol struck something soft and sunk into it slightly. Her eyes tightly closed. Whimpering, she tried to feel around, not wanting to open her eyes and see what horror awaited her in this dark dungeon. She heard Riley unleashing an angry roar, than Gauge roaring along with blasting something with lightning, and then…

Nothing. They didn't follow her. Maybe they couldn't. The fearful absol stayed perfectly still for several minutes on end, fearful of even twitching. The ground felt squishy under her fur, and she thought maybe she had landed somewhere with soft dirt.

She moved a paw forward slowly, feeling at the dirt under her belly (which she began to notice ached from the impact), and patted at the ground repeatedly.

 **Splash!**

Kurenai's paw shot back. She shivered. This was meant to scare her. She knew that. She remembered before, in cerulean, when Riley had gotten her in the bath. She had been angry then. But now… Now she was acting afraid. Was it this horrid ghost effect turning her anger into fear? Her hatred of water into a proper phobia? It was also possible that she had acted angry because someone was trying to force her in, and she actually was afraid of it…. She did not know what to think any longer.

Nevertheless, she was shaking. The girl shivered as she inched away from the water.

 **Splash!**

Kurenai yelped. Her tail had evidently landed in water as well. She flailed, splashing into water on all sides. She was surrounded. She covered her head with her paws, trying to be as small as possible.

Eventually, knowing what she was surrounded by, the girl tried to open her eyes. She blinked once. Twice. Three times. Nothing. She couldn't see a thing. This was nonsensical. She was a **dark type**. She could see very well in the dark. Yet… Nothing. It was so dark that she could literally see nothing.

The girl curled up as tightly as possible and hoped that Riley would save her.

* * *

Scarlet was in a clearing filled with berry bushes. She recognized it. Those strange (and very random) ghosty vines has thrown her into this weird place that looked just like home. Prior to it being torn apart by team rocket.

It was then she realized what this must be. Jeering laughter erupted from her left. She whipped her head around to see a familiar sight. Pikachu and pichu jeering at a younger pichu, who was waving her arms about indignantly. "I really saw her! I swear!" the young pichu shouted, flicking the ear with three spikes.

The same three spikes that Scarlet hid under her ribbon.

" _Why show this to me?"_ Scarlet wondered " _Where they are trying their best to scare me, they show me something that was already resolved?"_

Something changed. The pokemon laughing at her did something that separated from what they had done in this memory. They attacked, knocking the pichu to the ground with a push, laughing. Memory or not, Scarlet was not going to let this go by without intervening.

She ran and skidded to a halt between the offending memories and her old self. "Stop!" she exclaimed. They did stop, reacting to her presence rather than acting as though she was not there. "I won't let you hurt her."

They laughed. A collective, far too monotonous laugh that sent chills down her spine. She shivered in response.

"Oh look, she's got a sympathiser."

"Don't you know what happened to the last one?"

"We'll take you down without hesitation. It's about time we wiped this scum from the earth."

These were **not** who Scarlet had lived with for so long. This was a horror retelling without proper accuracy. She raised her paws. "I won't let you hurt her." she replied.

"What's with the stupid ribbon, huh?"

"You're some sort of human pet, huh?"

Scarlet froze.

"Riley is a good person! He is no trainer, and none of us are his pets!" she exclaimed, jumping to his defence with her words. She realized that she was not bothering to defend herself, but Riley instead. That was good, right?

"I doubt you can even use a proper electric attack." the pikachu in front smacked her with a paw, sending her tumbling to the ground with an unnatural strength. So these were not just illusions. Something had designed physical pikachu fakes to taunt her and scare her.

She generated some electricity on impulse, before crying out in pain as she caused burns to appear all over her body, and she collapsed.

"Aww… What's wrong?" a mocking voice asked. She looked up, and saw not a group of pikachu, but Amber. "Can't do anything at all? Can't defend yourself for so much as a moment? What happens the next time I go on a rampage, huh? How are you going to stun me this time?"

Now scarlet was impacted. This was her friend, telling her that she was useless.

Who she perceived to be Amber poked her in the stomach. "I can guess at why you stuck around Riley. At least **I** can defend myself. I can send people into panic whenever I like! You just stay on his shoulder and try to look like to can handle **something**. **Anything**. How pointless is that!?"

"Please… Stop." Scarlet murmured, tears springing to her eyes. Deep down she knew perfectly well that this Amber was not the real Amber, but… Would Amber never say such a thing? She wasn't the only one to have begun to believe that, after all. Scarlet knew it.

"Why do you even stay around us?" 'Amber' asked again, prodding her. "Why don't you just get out of here while you can and find somebody who's, ah, **safer** to be around?"

That was a mistake on whoever was playing this game's part. Scarlet knew that Amber had full confidence in Riley's abilities, despite teasing him on occasion. Scarlet looked at the slightly younger version of her, who was still there, looking on in something resembling confusion. Her tears dried quickly.

"I won't be tormented into submission, you fake!" she yelled, and brought her paws together. The pichu gathered energy between them, feeling a burning sensation but ignoring it, building a sphere of pure plasma between her paws at her side. She crouched, and lunged, thrusting her paws forward, unleashing a beam of pure destructive force past the fake eevee because she did not want to just blast who looked like her friend, which struck the floor of the area and unleashed a gigantic explosion that sent Scarlet flying back and shattering the illusion.

Her paws hurt like hell, but she was stood in a proper room now. Furthermore, a large amount of it was destroyed. The floor had an impressive crater, and the ceiling no longer existed. No fake Amber. The last remains of the illusion seemed to be breaking apart, including the fake young Scarlet, who was thanking her with her own eyes.

Then Scarlet was alone. She was breathing heavily, nursing the burns on her paws, but the pure destructive force of what she had unleashed… Plasma evidently had far more destructive capability than pure electrons.

She stumbled to the edge of the hole in the floor, looking down to see absolutely nothing, simply darkness. Above, where the roof had been blasted away, also held only darkness. Unfortunately, there were zero other exits.

" _It's only supposed to scare us."_ Scarlet reminded herself, feeling a huge burst of confidence. Though she was tired, she was not so afraid any longer. " _I'm only hurt because I hurt myself."_

Amber gathered her courage and leaped into the shadows. She fell for perhaps ten seconds before landing in what was hopefully water. She stilled, listening for something that might try to frighten her. She saw absolutely nothing. it was so dark that she could not see her paws at all. She risked releasing a spark of electricity, but she couldn't see **that** , either. And now her paw hurt more.

She heard a whimper, which was not exactly what she was thinking she would hear. She took a step in the waist deep water, creating a splashing noise that echoed throughout the room. There was a shuffle in the darkness, which, accompanied with the whimper, brought Scarlet to move towards the noise rather than away.

"Please go away…" the whimpering voice murmured fearfully, and Scarlet's eyes widened.

"Kurenai!?"

"Scarlet!?"

scarlet waded over until she felt the small dirt area that Kurenai was staying on evidently. She couldn't see the absol, but she had found her. Scarlet had the impression that this was not the plan of the pokemon putting them through this, but she had blasted apart this section of their little game.

"I'm here. Kurenai, the water's only like four inches deep." Scarlet tried to reason really quickly.

"It's still water."

"It won't hurt you. We need to get out of here, and you have to follow me. If I go first, and anything happens, like it gets deeper or something, I'll be the first to notice, and I can stop you."

Kurenai required further convincing, so Scarlet spent a good five minutes getting the absol into the water and then slowly on their way. They would find some way out of here, they hoped.

* * *

Amber was currently being badly affected as well. Riley had kept them close, but Amber silently noted that a lot of the paintings seemed to be negatives of scenes in her nightmares where she had died painfully. She didn't say a word about it, but seeing herself being eaten from the inside by small mechanical bugs was not pleasant, even if it was a freeze-frame. It was the most terrifying of the moments in each death, right before she really died in those dreams.

Gauge was not dealing with much. What was there for him to fear at the moment? Basically nothing. He could tell that whatever was playing this game did not know what to do with him, and was clearly frustrated, as they had resorted to jumpscares.

Not being able to see through walls was unnerving Gauge slightly, but he did not show it.

The most recent jumpscare got zapped into oblivion as Riley kept Amber from distracting herself with food. "That stuff could do anything to us." Riley reasoned, setting the eevee back on his shoulder. Gauge noticed how intent on food the eevee was.

"Careful, Riley" he advised. "Something about that food may be making Amber want to eat it." The luxray's advice made the boy practically leap away from the table, and he proceeded to walk up the stairs to the next floor, which was also filled with doors.

The boy wondered why he was acting on random impulse. Perhaps he had been shaken up more badly than he had initially believed. He wasn't even being cautious in his search for a path to Kurenai and Scarlet.

He looked over the balcony. "This place isn't scaring you at all." he reminded the luxray below him on the bottom floor. "You might as well practice flying about and avoiding obstacles like the chandeliers. It's a big room, so… Also, don't eat the food if you fall and land there."

"Sound advice." Gauge rolled his eyes at the last comment "You figured out that the girls are probably safe?"

"Probably, but I can't excuse failing to keep them with me." Riley growled, mostly at himself. He sunk against the railing, head buried in his arms. "Every door, either filled with pointless jumpscares or in one case, an empty room with a picture of some ugly face with a grin on it in the back. It's designed for me to fail. I'm supposed to be strong enough to face those odds and win. I **am** strong enough for that. I **am** fast enough for that. But… I failed anyways. Twice.

"Scarlet got turned intangible." Amber tried to reason.

"I could have gotten away from the attack as fast as possible." Riley refuted, unwilling to be comforted. And he could have just carried Kurenai again. There was no real excuse, and everyone knew it. He could have at least done better, even if the place would have been more intent on capturing them. He could have done so much more to protect them.

Amber knew that the boy was not infallible, and she was fine with it. She knew that everybody else on the team knew that too. Only he was expecting him to never screw up ever. The eevee wrapped her tail around his neck in a comforting manner, almost like a hug, which was easy from his shoulder.

"...Thank you, Amber." the human murmured. Gauge 'landed' near them on his face after taking Riley's advice, and stood up with messy fur before giving Riley a nod. His own version of at least showing some confidence in the boy. Then, he took off again. Hopefully he would have a better time landing after some practice.

Riley continued opening doors (and angrily testing doors with locks with his staff or foot and rarely getting a result), punching whatever jumpscare showed up or sticking whatever he found into his pockets. It played out like a damn video game, which Amber explained to Riley (who had no idea how the eevee knew about them at all) and the two became somewhat angry.

Worse, every key they found was A: a normal key, which Riley seemed to lack the ability to handle or even learn to handle for some reason, and B: a key that led to something else that was of no use whatsoever.

Riley went back and stuffed that piece of paper with the ugly grinning face in his pocket. Nobody knew what it was just yet, but if they were let out of this nonsense, it might come in useful for annoying somebody the boy hated.

"Stick it on that Ember woman's back." Amber suggested. Riley smirked at the idea. He also smirked at the idea of pretending that he had misheard her and thought she said 'Amber' instead. Nah. He'd lose a tool for general annoyance right away.

Amber was good at making him feel better.

Eventually, one of the doors had a corridor in it with some wailing decaying thing flying at him from the depths, which he punched right in the mouth and sent it to the ground, where it promptly dissolved. That left an actual corridor. "Oi, Gauge!" Riley called.

The large electric type slammed to the ground in a less than perfect landing behind Riley and skidded into the wall next to them in a comical fashion. While Amber laughed at him, He pulled away from the wall and looked into the doorway. "Nice." he commented.

"It could be a false alarm." Riley warned, walking down into the passageway. The luxray followed the two companions into the depths. Unlit and generally dark, it proved to be something far more sadistic than a corridor.

after running into walls for a while, which Gauge proceeded to solve by starting to release sparks again. "A maze. We've walked into a damn **maze**!"

"This just keeps getting better and better" Gauge growled sarcastically "and those ghosts somehow put my x-ray vision on the blink." Gauge took the lead, lighting the way forward. It could have been hours or minutes that they walked; Time was difficult to discern when they started doing repetitive things.

But mindless walking aside (they were certain that The walls were shifting), they came across an opening that led into… An endless bridge spanning water. The blue sky greeted them, and the clouds moved slowly across. Everyone blinked and looked back, to see more endless bridge and more water and blue sky.

"Soooo…" Amber whispered, uncertain of the thing that would terrify them next, before she stamped her paw into Riley's shoulder as she got an idea. "Sea monster?"

"No." Riley's voice sounded odd.

Gauge looked back again. "If we cannot go back, we cannot find the other girls." he reflected, though Riley only mildly cursed at this.

"Uh… Riley?" Amber asked, worried now.

"What are you doing here?" Riley asked the man twenty feet across the bridge from him. He hadn't been there before, the others were certain of it. Amber's breath caught.

"Who is this?" Gauge wondered.

"Hell if I know." The man replied with a helpless gesture, his arms lazily extended to each side. "Went to sleep outside Lavender and woke up here. You?"

"Went to sleep **in** Lavender and woke up here." Riley replied. "So. Surrounded by water, on a tough looking wooden bridge, with you facing me. I assume that the gengar in charge wants us to fight. That's fine with me, by the way."

"Must I repeat my question?" Gauge deadpanned.

"This is Zach…." Amber pointed at the man with the saws "he tried to kill Riley before."

Before Gauge could react to this, Riley set Amber down. "Stay out of this." he ordered, pulling his staff out of its sheath and readying it.

Zach grinned and unsheathed his saws. "Just like old times?"

"Different" Riley shook his head. "I've got two friends trapped in this monstrosity of… whatever it is, and I'm not nearly as happy. You know what else is different." Riley twirled the staff between his fingers, determined to go all out this time.

"I'd say 'en garde', but We're using saws and a staff." Zach commented casually, preparing his weapons for battle.

Riley suddenly smirked, earning a smirk in return, and both combatants lunged immediately.

 **C-clang!**

Riley's staff was held in place by the wide, semicircular grooves of the twin saws. He quickly leapt into the air in a spiral with enough force to try and disarm the older man, forcing Zach to jump and spin as well before both disengaged their weapons and aimed powerful kicks at each other.

The two strikes hit each other, and the two skidded back to their original places. "Zach." Riley frowned mockingly "Have you gotten slower?"

Zach smirked. "Have you gotten faster?"

"No."

"No."

The two charged in again and began striking at each other over and over in an indescribable array of moves, practically dancing across the bridge. Three meters by an apparently infinite distance was an odd battlefield to be certain, but it did not seem to be a hindrance for the two rivals.

Riley drove his staff in towards the man's chest, though Zach barely had enough time to smack it away and launch a counterattack. Riley also had barely enough time to deflect the saw coming from his right and push away the other saw coming straight for his abdomen with the tip of his own weapon.

Gauge was trying to analyze the battle, unable to keep up with each attack or view patterns. If the two could keep pace with each other, that was impressive. He watched as Riley would randomly blur around to be behind Zach, only for his strike to be parried again.

Now Gauge frowned. Riley's movements seemed to have no consequence. His bursts of speed did not require him to skid to a stop, even if he was leaving legitimate afterimages. He simply stopped right where he was aiming to be. " _Very odd…"_ Gauge thought to himself.

Amber, realizing that she could not really do anything to help, resorting to cheering her friend on as if this was some sort of friendly competition, when this guy was apparently trying to **kill** him. Gauge had no idea what was going on at all.

Riley hopped away from one of Zach's strikes, and skidded to a stop while making running motions until he started making forward progress again. Enough forward progress to leap above Zach and over, turning what seemed to be a strike at the head into a low sweep as Riley landed and crouched. He forced the man to leap upward, which Riley followed up with a kick to the chest, sending Zach flying up and over Amber and Gauge.

He landed lightly and darted past the two pokemon, who decided to step aside for the guy. "Yeah Riley!" Amber cheered, pumping a paw into the air.

Zach pulled one of those deadly whirlwind attacks that you had to either avoid entirely or accept your fate, so Riley could not counterattack for a bit, before he himself had to block one strike, powerful enough to send him sliding to the edge of the dock, and he dropped to avoid a kick aimed for his chest to land on his back. The boy kicked away the next saw strike and then kicked Zach away, avoiding the dangerous situation he had gotten in.

But now Zach was very close to him. Riley rolled backwards to his feet and leaped straight up, putting his legs at Zach's head height, throwing a roundhouse kick while keeping his staff ready to deflect an attack that did come to block the strike.

Zack got his other saw in the way of Riley's foot, but he was still send sliding. Now both combatants were near the water. Riley brought his staff down as he landed, and Zach launched upward with his right hand saw.

Both stopped one inch from their targets, the full force strikes negated.

"This would have smashed your skull like a melon." Riley stated.

"This would have skewered your heart with total ease." Zach returned.

Both stood still, eyes shadowed with serious expressions. Wind whistled through the their hair. Finally, the two grinned, freed each of their right hands, and gave a single handshake. Totally at ease.

"Well done, kid." Zach complimented, patting Riley on the back really hard as the boy started to walk towards his friends again. "You got better."

Riley chuckled, though both had their backs turned to each other now as Riley walked "Naw, I just got faster." he stated, waving as if Zach could see it. "Oh, and I'm better at lying, apparently."

The two laughed, and with that, Gauge started to relax. He did not understand how these two operated, but he did understand that they were not going to fight anytime soon. Maybe later, when one of them wanted to fight again.

But it seemed weirdly friendly, the two of them trying to kill each other. Like rivals, but a bit more brutal. It was evidently a tie as well, something that both humans accepted. This meant that neither was really in danger from each other, and it also meant that there were more humans with such power, that such power was in fact possible for another human.

"Right." Amber said, jumping on Riley's shoulder as the two faced each other again. She pointed at Zach with her paw. "I'll let you hurting Riley slide, I guess. You're not trying to kill him anymore, so I guess I don't need to bite your face off."

Zach's eyebrow rose. "What does the fox say?" he asked, grinning at his (really) bad joke.

Riley didn't get it, but he still responded. "Amber was basically saying that now that we're sort-of allies or something she doesn't need to 'bite your face off'." he responded, putting some air quotes in there to demonstrate Amber's exact wording.

Zach's grin didn't fade so much as an iota, and Amber sulked a bit. "Is that so?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Well then. You said your other little pokepals are missing?"

"If you'd be willing to help find them… We have to get off of this stupid bridge first." Riley looked from one way to the other. "So… Which way did we come from?" he asked as everyone looked about, having gotten turned around.

* * *

"I."

 **Splash.**

"Hate."

 **Splash.**

"Water."

 **Splash.**

"You're doing fine, Kurenai." Scarlet assured the absol, being as soothing as possible so that her friend didn't bolt or something. "Why do you hate water, anyways?"

"Just a few flashes of memory, but I think I was taken to the beach or something when I was still young enough that I didn't get whipped or anything, mostly to accompany Matt. I followed him to the water's edge and I got swamped by a wave, pulled out a ways, and nearly drowned after swallowing a bunch of water in my shock, and… Well, Matt pulled me out of there and made sure that I was safe. He was young back then too, so he didn't really know everything he was taught…" Kurenai found herself defending her old trainer. Without that man that had taught him, he might have been quite a good person.

"And ever since you've hated water?"

"I guess…" Kurenai's voice was soft "But it's odd. Sometimes I hate it, especially if someone is trying to force me in, and other times I am afraid of it… I don't understand…"

Scarlet patted her on the back comfortingly and tried to figure out what to say. She had no real explanation. Maybe Kurenai just felt conflicted about the incident in the first place, about who or what to blame, and so she is affected by both assumptions of something. If that made sense.

They could have been walking for hours or minutes, it was hard to tell. Time simply seemed to slip by here, when they were doing something uniform over and over again. Some indescribable amount of time later, Scarlet found herself taking a step and sinking straight into the water.

She surfaced quickly. "Stop!" she shouted as she found her footing and felt at the gap. "We've got a pit here."

Kurenai prodded at the spot where she had heard splashing, finding that the water was indeed much deeper. However, it was not exactly as pich black as everything else. No, there was a little light dwn there. "How big is the pit?" she asked worriedly.

Scarlet carefully walked around it once. "Maybe about… two meters?"

"I can see you a little." Kurenai stated "There's light at the bottom, and I see really well with at least some small amount of light."

"I can see the light, and I think the surface of the water, but not you very clearly." Scarlet responded, feeling at the edge. "The inside edge is rocky, jagged. We would have to go down there straight through the center."

Kurenai froze. "What." She said. Scarlet pointed at the water, and then stopped.

"Oh." she said "Well… I've never swam either… So…"

"So… What?" Kurenai asked, uncertain of what Scarlet was thinking.

"So… I'll need to figure out if that's the exit, and to do that, I need to…" Scarlet murmured, tightening her ribbon "I think this thing will be fine in water. It hasn't gotten waterlogged or anything after everything." she slipped into the deeper water, waiting to let go of the ledge until she knew for certain how to stay afloat. Once that was accomplished, the pichu went on to swim down a ways and come back up.

"The water gets warmer further down" she explained "and it felt weird after about four feet, like I was being pushed back a bit."

"Uh…" Kurenai responded dumbly, still staring at the water as the pichu dived down for longer periods of time.

"We can't use weights to sink down or anything. It's like… Gravity flips or something at a certain point, like down is suddenly up." Scarlet muttered, and then she looked contemplative. "Maybe if we used floats instead…"

"Can we please not go in the water?"

"Kurenai, we have to get out of here!"

"This could easily be a trap!"

"Kurenai, listen to me please." Scarlet waved her arms before remembering to keep herself afloat again. "We are not in this place to be killed. Those ghosts Riley mentioned are not trying to harm us, they are trying to torment us. Tease us."

"You are covered in burns!"

"I did that to myself."

"Scarlet…"

"This is the only different thing we have seen since coming down here. I have every reason to believe that getting down there slash up there once we go down deep enough, we can progress forward and maybe get out of here." Scarlet reasoned.

"I will not be getting in that water!"

* * *

"This is ridiculous."

"I agree."

Riley was pacing back and forth, over and over again. The others were just watching him do so, their heads turning back and forth while all were tense.

"How is it we have trouble simply deciding what freaking direction we go?" Riley asked sardonically.

"I'm having trouble deciding whether it matters. Me might not wind up making any legitimate progress at all, if this thing just repeats the same spot over and over, which it looks like it does." Zach remarked.

Riley facepalmed. "Whilst Amber and Gauge, two who I least expected to start arguing about this, have been going at it for ten minutes."

"Could you maybe reword that a bit so that this bugger doesn't get the wrong idea?" Amber pointed at Zach. "Besides, if we go back, we'll make zero progress in this place."

"And yet…" Gauge started "returning to the room before might allow us to find a different solution."

"Which is through a maze, and if we're lucky, no different than before, and if we're unlucky, completely restocked on bullshit for us to deal with." Amber replied.

" **Hush**." Riley commanded, shutting both of them up instantly. Riley **never** growled at them. "I don't care about progress, I want to find Kurenai and Scarlet, and I am not leaving here without them. Going forward could help with that, going backward could help with that." Riley slumped to the ground in a sitting position "And there is not a damn thing I can do to figure out which is which, and neither of you have any idea either. We should just be-"

"If you say it, we'll be attacked." Zach interrupted. Riley conceded the point with a jerk of his head, and then his head sunk into his hands.

"I don't know what to do…" he groaned "I can't win. None of us can."

"None of us have any tricks up our sleeve to deal with spells cast by magic or ghosts." Zach nodded with a rare degree of sympathy, before he went back to a general carelessness.

Amber took to pacing, mirroring Riley's earlier movements and looking at the water. It looked nice and cool, and clear. The water was still. Amber looked through the water, which was pretty much crystal clear. As long as she didn't touch it, she could see just fine.

She frowned. The ocean floor looked a bit… Orderly. She didn't really know what it was supposed to look like, but with rather obvious spots where the ground rose up in uniform pyramidal spikes. And then there was a pit or two that she could see down there.

"I am going to continue learning how to fly." Gauge stated, and was off. Perhaps he could find an exit in the clouds or something. Amber wouldn't be surprised in an insane house of horror. Whispering death paintings had really done it for her.

Everything had turned from a scary experience to a surreal one, and she had the impression that it was their own fault. Riley and Gauge were not easy to scare, Her fears were just kind of overdone by her nightmares, so all the place could do was remind them… Kurenai and Scarlet were probably separated because this place **could** hurt them.

When she got her paws on those ghost types, it wouldn't matter if she couldn't directly attack them. There was going to be hell to pay if Scarlet and Kurenai were injured, or otherwise harmed.

Gauge did indeed find something. He swooped down, his paws skimming the water as he slowed himself down in the hopes of landing on the dock. Riley had to snag his scruff as he blew past, saving the luxray from a nasty tumble in the water on the other side.

Amber saw the ripples from the water expand, just sort of watching. What she ended up watching was some bubbles begin to rise from the random orderly spikes. "Guys…" She started to warn.

"There is a legitimate exit up there." Gauge stated.

"... **Guys** …"

"And it's not too far, or moving at all. It'll take some work, but I should be able to get us through it. I might be able to fly us out of here all at once… Maybe."

"So reassuring." Zach drawled

Amber's eyes were no longer calm. "I think I should warn you-"

 **Bwooosh!**

the water erupted as giant metal **things** erupted from the water, from the now opened spikes in the ground which now reminded Amber of opening flower petals from a blooming petal. There were **dozens** of them. Amber stared up at the things as Riley and ach drew their weapons and stood at the ready.

"Damn." Zach muttered.

"Took the words out of my mouth." Riley responded, sliding into a more opportune position to take a hit from a giant metal thing.

Amber realized there was nowhere to hide in this ridiculous place. Random monsters, terrifying beasts… The House of Horror was not done with them just yet. And looking at the most recent obstacle, Amber wondered whether this place actually **had** been designed to kill them, and had just been going easy on them all. Now, after giving it so much trouble, and after the ghosts' construction project seems to have gone astray, they were now in very real danger.

Ambe whimpered at the sight of the giant segmented metal tentacles that rose from the water to greed them. She feared that not even Riley could manage to get them out of this fight. It looked absolutely hopeless, considering all the sharp points on those things. This pretty little bridge could very well be the place that they were to die.

* * *

"Ghosts can create a place known as a House of Horror."

An old woman sat in her rocking chair, reading a book. Her home in Lavender Town was located very close to the hotel where everything had began. Her book shifted like an illusion in her hands, yet she still read it, and read aloud.

* * *

" _A land that preys on the worst fears of those trapped within them. Once created, the ghosts lose control of their work, and may simply observe."_

The gengar and haunter stayed where they were, extremely concerned. This had **not** gone as planned.

" _When the House of Horror faces an opponent that cannot be frightened, or manages to fight back, it begins to devolve. As the fear factor decreases, the real danger begins."_

Riley and the rest faced a horde of giant metal spiked tentacles that threatened to tear them all apart or drown them or whatever it could do to them. The group expressed varying degrees of emotion, most understanding that they could not fight this thing without a lot of luck and a lot of time.

" _The primary purpose is for those in the House to experience fear. The House will go to any length to accomplish this. Eventually, it turns to creating peril, and despair. That is when it is at it's limit."_

Scarlet and Kurenai saw shadows flit over the light in the pit they stared into, occasionally being plunged into complete darkness.

" _And when that dark limit is reached… It becomes one of the most dangerous things in the world."_

Riley sidestepped as one tentacle annihilated the portion of the wooden walkway next to him. "This place is really trying to kill us."

" _But if one can defeat the House of Horror…"_

"I need to send an attack down there." Scarlet decided "Figure out what's happening."

" _Then the House of Horror shall forever crumble."_

"Scarlet…" Kurena murmured "What will happen if we tear this horrible place apart?"

"I don't know." Scarlet admitted "But… I am going to try."

* * *

 **Alright. That was a thing. Lots of complicated stuff. I could have described more things and stuff but that would have just added to the word count and was generally unimportant if I left it out. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. please review, while I go make sure Jango hasn't destroyed anything important. The ending narration is because I wanted to. Also, I don't always make cliffhangers, but when I do, they involve giant evil things. Also, Scarlet is now powerful. Also, Amber's attack can be identified with proper overviewing of other appearances of the attack. Also, Review. Again. Thank you all, and have a pleasant day.**


	15. Chapter Fifteen: The House of Horror

**Well, this took me a while. Shorter chapter this time around. I had to wrap it up. At least things might continue to be exciting further down the line.**

 **Amber: I've brought the reviews.**

 **Me: thank you, Amber.**

 **Amber: Uh... First up is... Uh... Alger? What's he doing with Westernfail?**

 **Jango: Who cares? Why are we with Hyper? Spoilers, small fry.**

 **Amber: Don't call me that. Anyways, I'm pretty sure Zach has what became a friendly rivalry with Riley after realizing that the boy could actually contest him in a fight.**

 **Me: I can't answer your questions just yet, LucarioKing1008. However, I thank you for pointing out some errors for me to fix. I'll get on that.**

 **Jango: Obscurity is our specialty, Zero Lunar. I'm just happy Hyper has some sense of sadism left in him from his experiences to do that, so I can actually enjoy something.**

 **Amber: Raven's ranting. She seems to have enjoyed the chapter, though.**

 **Me: The ranting certainly is interesting. And humorous. And it catches my eye. Good show, that. Anyways, Ooh! Somebody new! Hi, hello! I... Don't actually remember getting an email notification for your review. As for your prediction, read on.**

 **Amber: TwistedMoonlight comments on how you operate, and he-slash-she seems to approve.**

 **Jango: Your Arceus has an office? What? Zlaxe, that's... Impressive. What is he, a business leader or some sort of nonsense?**

 **Amber: Jango, manners. Anyways, Jango did pull a trick when he got back, but I stopped it. He's fine.**

 **Jango: Aaaand Phillip Harbindinger thinks this story has decent RPG elements.**

 **Me: Hush, Jango. It was meant as a compliment. I assume.**

 **At any rate, it's about time we get to the story. This chapter is far shorter than the last one, but I made sure to set up the next one. Goodness, this was a difficult chapter to write, short as it was. Anyways, Read on!**

* * *

 **Chapter Fifteen: The House of Horror**

"Those don't look friendly," Zach noted.

"Thank you, captain obvious," Amber replied, Riley echoing her words for Zach. She was still weirded out by the rivalry the two showed, but right now it looked like the real danger was beginning. Things were very wrong looking. Giant metal objects covered in blades that twisted around like tentacles rose above them in the water.

"Looks like fun." Riley remarked drily, and that seemed to be the cue for the things to attack. Thirty metal bladed things rushed at them in different ways, sweeping, stabbing, aiming to glance off of them.

Gauge was out of there, flying up and away while Riley proceeded to treat the attacking metal structures like a jungle gym. His staff strikes meant nothing to the weaponized things, metal clashing against metal with only small dents showing up in the other material.

Zach was having even less luck. His saws were for ripping things apart, like fleshy opponents, He too put dents in things, but he had to use other tricks to get around. Namely, hooking his saw on the blades protruding from the sides of the tentacles and launching himself at high speeds away from the opposing weaponry.

Gauge took the moment to comically gawk at the fact that Zach was currently flying higher than he was in the air.

"I'm the one with wings, dammit!" he yowled as the man started to fall back down. Zach wasn't a pokemon translator, but he got the gist of that one.

"Shut up, cat!" Zach retorted, frustrated from not being able to do much damage despite his strength.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be very little that the others could do. Kurenai tried to slash at a tentacle as it passed, only to be nearly thrown off of Gauge. Gauge's electricity made it angry enough to chase after them, which only meant that Riley was in slightly less danger.

Speaking of Riley, he wasn't in a good way. He had a cut across his left thigh, and Amber was having to hang on by her claws as he leaped everywhere. He would eventually grab Amber in his arms and move extremely quickly, Amber's vision blurring momentarily before they were elsewhere. Apparently Riley was absolutely serious at the moment.

"At least Scarlet and Kurenai are probably safe," she murmured, something to which Riley was concerned about. If Amber and himself and the others were being attacked, then Kurenai and Scarlet were probably being attacked as well, and they were **alone**.

Actually, they weren't alone. Kurenai was currently trying to stop the pichu from burning herself further.

"Scarlet, this is crazy!" she protested. The pichu was rubbing the burns on her arms looking down at the shadows flitting across whatever light lay down there.

The pichu shook her head. "We have no other options. And the others could be in trouble or something." Scarlet reminded the absol, putting her paws together at her side.

Kurenai winced as Scarlet whimpered in pain, a sphere of shining power building between her paws until it was about the size of her head. Scarlet held back a reaction to having her paws burned again, and leaped up and over the center of the pit of water.

And she thrust her paws forward, unleashing a beam of white hot plasma, spearing through the water and illuminating the rugged stone walls of the pit… As well as the open area underneath them.

Back with Riley and their group, They certainly got a light show. Out of the water came a searing beam of energy, exploding so violently against the tentacle it hit that the metal was obliterated at ground zero. The resulting explosion flung Riley away towards the long deck again.

Zach took the moment to save his rival from taking a dip by grabbing the collar of his shirt as he passed and hauling him over to the wooden surface. Without so much as a nod to each other, they looked at the very much destroyed weapon they had been fighting.

"What the actual-" Riley started, but was interrupted by the entire place rumbling, shaking. **Growling**. Everybody except for Gauge stopped moving in unison. "This place isn't actually **alive** , is it?" Riley continued, breaking from his original train of thought.

The place shook again, and the water level started to rise to cover the deck by about a foot. The remaining weaponized metal tentacles turned red and the spikes and blades got about three times longer. "Whatever that beam was, it made this place angry." Gauge growled, and then his eyes widened.

Why? Because the movements of their 'opponents' had gotten about five times faster and so much deadlier. Gauge found himself caught in midair, roaring as the spikes stabbed through about two inches deep into his skin. His wings were caught in a bad way, threatening to snap.

"Gauge!" Amber shouted, bringing Riley's attention to the trapped and injured luxray. Things seemed to slow down around him. He scowled, moving at his normal pace, and jumped from object to object trying to get to him. With everything moving slower than him, he bounced off of everything and got to Gauge.

Gauge was practically pleading with Riley with his eyes. If his wings broke, he would be pretty much useless, he knew. His electricity hadn't done a thing to the now red metal. That, and he liked his wings. A lot. They made that torture he had gone through worth it, even if he had little memory of before they apparently took it from him.

Riley gripped the metal tubes pulling them and discovering that they did not yield to his impressive strength. The boy was fearful, terrified that he would lose one of his friends. Fear beginning to shut him down, because he knew that he was not strong enough.

And Gauge saw that for just a moment. That fear; the fear of a boy who was about to lose what he cared about, and couldn't do a thing about it. The luxray felt a strong sense of loyalty to the boy, who truly seemed to care, who truly seemed to believe that it should be himself in this death trap.

But after Gauge blinked, it was a whole different story. Riley was clenching at the offending tubes of metal, a truly horrifying look on his face rather than the earlier horrified look. He started to literally flicker white. Not evolution light, but definitely **not** natural.

He put his hands on the metal and started to pull. There was a groaning sound of metal as the boy glared with sheer determination. He continued flickering, and then… Then Gauge watched flash a final time and thrust his arms apart, ripping the constraints to shreds in the process.

Metal flew everywhere, and Gauge was suddenly no longer held in place. The electric-flying type caught Riley on his back and took the boy and Amber further away.

Unfortunately, he didn't make the landing so perfect. Skidding to a stop would probably have been less painful if he hadn't managed to do it on his face. He'd be picking splinters out of his face for hours if he had the time.

Riley checked up on him, noting that the guy hadn't taken the impact too well. Amber was on his shoulder still, which was a plus, and everything around them was trembling.

Riley watched as the destroyed weaponry flew back together and threatened them with its presence again. The boy realized that no matter what he could do when he was determined, if they couldn't escape, they were done for. The boy slowly took Amber off of his shoulder slowly and set her on Gauge's back.

"Riley, what are you doing?" Amber asked. The boy closed his eyes.

"Gauge? Can you fly?"

"My wings are sore, but yeah." Gauge replied, understanding. Amber understood as well and tried to scramble off. Gauge had her by the scruff in seconds. "Let me go!" the eevee shouted at him while Riley started walking forward to get back to where Zach himself was having trouble.

"He's not going to get us killed." Gauge stated through the thick fur on Amber's collar. "We're gone."

He spread his wings and started flying, staying far, far out of reach of the activated weapons. Amber screamed at him to help, but these things were electricity proof, evidently. "Shut up, fox." the electric type growled. "We'll only be killed, and Riley's trying to keep that from happening."

"He's gonna get himself killed!" Amber protested, unable to attack the winged luxray to make him drop her. He was flying towards a cloud, which had an inconspicuous door shape. Whatever was next lay through there. Amber stared with contempt at it. Without Riley, there was no point going through there.

Gauge stopped on the cloud, which held their weight in a cartoonish, fake manner. Gauge kept a hold on the little fox constantly, though he looked down to see what was going on.

Riley slammed a tentacle aside and skidded to a stop nearby Zach. "Hi." he said as calmly as possible.

"Got anymore of that trick you pulled with your luxray friend?" Zach asked.

Riley looked at him. "What trick? I'm tired, if that's what you mean."

"...Whatever." the man shrugged. The weapons seemed to be taking a break or something, as if for the express purpose of letting them have their last words. "That's convenient. Hey, I wanted to apologize."

"For trying to kill me that time?"

"For making that awful fox joke. Easily the worst thing I've ever done."

"Eh, I didn't understand the reference. Benefit of living out of human range."

They were encircled, and they could find no exits. "Looks like this is it." Riley changed topic. "Scarlet's gone, Kurenai's gone, both could be dead, and the others could escape if they're lucky." the boy was looking down, and then he promptly broke down.

"I was supposed to protect them…" he whispered. "Now they're-

 **BWOOM!**

Riley's head shot back up. Light shone through the closing spaces in the writhing dome that was preparing to crush them. Then, there was a big explosion that launched fire and energy into what should have kept everything in and out.

Because Scarlet had chosen to grab Kurenai and use more energy to launch herself through the water, having realized that the absol would never try to get through there willingly. Kurenai was screaming, and Scarlet had a determined look on her face that quickly dissolved into pain as she lost control of the direction she was going and the energy output.

What Gauge and Amber saw was a glowing white projectile erupting from the water and immediately curving into the death trap that had enveloped the humans. "The fuck was that!?" Amber cried out, squirming in Gauge's jaws.

"The fuck was that!?" Zach asked, just before the light faded to reveal a very unconscious and burned black pichu and an absol. Riley had them in an instant, jumping away through the hole they had made.

"Scarlet, what have you been doing!?" he shouted. "Gauge! Get down here!"

Riley and Zach sprinted away from the weapons, which were indeed chasing them down. The redhead checked on Scarlet, wincing at how badly the pichu had injured herself, though he also noted that her ribbon was oddly intact.

Gauge left Amber on the cloud platform, where she couldn't just go get herself down without injuring herself, and tried to get there as fast as he could. It turns out that life or death situations really make learning easier.

Gauge grabbed Kurenai by the scruff (The absol was a bit traumatized from being dragged underwater and wasn't moving a muscle), and then managed to hold Scarlet between his paws. The luxray took off quickly, trying to get back to Amber and the others.

"No!" Riley shouted, smacking aside the metal tentacle that went to stop the pokemon from escaping, allowing the luxray and his cargo to get back up to the cloud platform. He was smacked away for his trouble, sliding against the wood surface of the wood and making a large wake in the water that still stood a foot above it.

Riley allowed himself to be hit by the fact that everyone he was trying to protect was all right. "They're all fine…" he whispered as he got to one knee and glared at the apparently even angrier metal tentacles. Then even more of them started showing up through the water, rising like the limbs of a kraken out of the ocean setting. "They're going to be all right…" he continued to whisper.

"We're not." Zach pointed out "I think we're going to get our asses handed to us if we don't get your fancy luxray back to carry us back."

"Good point. He's a step ahead of us." Riley gestured to the sky where a shadow was approaching, having dropped the less capable off again. "Heads up. Gauge! Get out of there!"'

Gauge veered away in time to avoid the weapon that Riley leaped to parry. "Get Zach first. I can move faster anyways." Riley ordered as he distracted the thing by running along it like it was a racetrack or something.

"What I bet he would do for those metal boots of his doppelganger." Zach muttered, waiting for Gauge to get to him as he made his way away from the boy playing on the living, moving jungle gym covered in blades and spikes.

Gauge took the liberty of tossing the man onto his back, ignoring the jolt on his aching wings, and taking off. "Steady, girl!" Zach made the mistake of saying, before remembering that his temporary ride was indeed male, and he got a shock out of that one.

His shoulder length hair sticking straight out, he got himself off of his pissed off ride, who gave him a warning growl and then flew off.

"Wasn't gonna stab the guy to save my own neck…" Zach muttered mostly for his own benefit to justify not protecting himself from the potentially heart-stopping shock as he would have done. He was cursing himself. " _Dammit, I've gone soft."_ he growled in his head. He was going to do something a bit less kind when he got out of there.

Amber screamed. The human adult's head shot up and looked down. Riley had gotten trapped again. The boy was panting. Zach watched him rip apart a red tentacle after some effort, blinking white a few times. But when he was done, the poor kid was panting hard. Whatever that was, he either wasn't used to it or it really tuckered the guy out.

Gauge was forced to keep away and the boy was enveloped by bladed weapons. " **Riley!** " Amber screamed, staring in horror as the mass of tentacles enveloping the boy submerged into the water with the clear intent of drowning him.

Shouts could still be heard on Riley's end. He knew Gauge would get them out of there. Survival instinct started to kick in and he tried to swim away from his attacker, but that achieved nothing. He was already out of breath, and now he was in the water; Riley could not hold on for much longer.

And Amber knew that, screaming his name over and over as Gauge tried to hold her in place. "You'll only get yourself killed if you go!" Gauge protested as she scrambled to go down there "And it's far too high. you'll hit the water too hard."

"I don't care!" Amber shouted. She remembered that in one of her freaky dreams, one of the shadows had told her that Riley would need help in the water, or something of the sort. She vaugly remembered now the feeling she had gotten from her necklace when she was under the influence of that awful food.

Water. Gushing water all around. Her necklace had that same power, and in this moment of immense stress and panic in the face of losing her best friend, Amber started to feel it. It seemed to consume her, and she heard a wave roaring in her ears.

Gauge's eyes widened as the pokemon he was holding gained weight and started to force his jaws apart simply by **growing**. He set the eevee down on the cloud and kept himself between her and the edge. That is, until it was pretty obvious she wasn't an eevee anymore.

"Outta the way!" the vaporeon snarled at Gauge as she rar right between the stunned luxray's legs and dived off of the clouds before the winged luxray could pin and snatch her.

"Don't be stupid!" he yowled down at her before trying to dive towards her. He wasn't fast enough to defy gravity. He had to pull up as the vaporeon smashed into the water.

Amber, for her part, didn't give a shit that she was a vaporeon or that her way was lit by the glowing blue piece on the three-part necklace. She swam as well as she could have walked, shooting for Riley under the clear water.

It turns out that swimming was really easy. Amber found that the tentacles trying to catch her were easily evaded by spinning and looping around them while she tried to get Riley out. He was in a makeshift cage of metal, holding his breath. At least he had not given up.

Amber shot forward, building strength in her muscles and swatting aside some metal with her tail. The opening widened just enough for her to reach in and grab Riley's collar within her jaws. The boy gave a distorted yelp as he was pulled away, realizing that he was suddenly moving really fast.

Amber was like an arrow, pulling Riley back to the platform and thankfully, Gauge had noticed their progress. "Get him up there!" Amber shouted, panting. She felt like dying right about now; her muscles felt really weak.

Gauge somehow managed to grab both Riley's collar and Amber's scruff in his jaws at once and took off as fast as he could with two passengers.

And then they were in the clear. "Door! Get through the door!" Gauge shouted, everybody scrambling to get through. Zach did not understand the luxray, not properly, but again, it wasn't difficult to discern the meaning.

Everybody collapsed on a stone surface. "Pah!" Riley spat out some water, before shakily getting to one knee. "Report." he ordered.

A chorus of 'present' made his heart soar. The boy smiled softly. He drew Amber into his arms slowly, as well as Kurenai. "I'm glad you're safe…" he whispered. Amber buried her muzzle into his metal shirt before promptly falling unconscious from the strain. She shrank back into an eevee at the same time. Riley wasn't even fazed.

Kurenai put a stop to the happy moment, which was kind of unlike her. "Scarlet's hurt." she reminded everybody.

They checked on Scarlet. The pichu was stable, but she had done a lot of damage to herself to save everybody. She was stable, however. Riley had taken off his pack before, but Zach had his own small bag with him where he took one of those healing liquid things that Riley didn't know how to use.

"She'll be fine after some rest." Zach said. "A lot of it."

Riley slumped back. "Good. That's good. What's gotten into you, anyways?" he asked Zach.

The man shrugged. "We're all in danger, and I'm not being paid to kill anybody. You've provided a half decent challenge for me to fight, and considering I don't need the pay anyways, there's no point."

Kurenai's eyes widened. She backed away from the man. "You kill people!?" she asked, hiding behind Riley.

"You know I'm supposed to turn you in, right?" Riley asked. Zach smirked to himself as Riley sighed. "Yeah. I am. Maybe when I actually best you in combat. You're probably the least tired right now."

"At least we both enjoy the challenge." Zach pointed out with a grin.

Riley rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. I guess I do." he admitted, much to Kurenai's shock. "I guess that means the next fight we're going to have will be very real."

"We'll wait on it." Zach decided, accepting that Riley wasn't going to just let him get away with taking assassin jobs. Even if the twenty-seven total targets had been mostly dangerous members of competing criminal organizations that would pay him to take others out, and a few big businessmen that had taken advantage of others.

But he had taken some of the better people out as well. That had been a mistake.

Kurenai knew that Zach was not a good man. She feared him. She was confused as to why Riley was so oddly accepting of his actions, considering he certainly did **not** condone taking the lives of others in the first place. What made those two tick?

But she couldn't think about it anymore. She was tired, and she had been subjected to water for so long. The poor girl needed a break."You've got first watch." Riley told the other human, lying down with his pokemon by his side. Only Gauge and Zach remained awake.

"I really should vaporize you." Gauge muttered to himself after five minutes. He had enough electricity to do it, too. Just because it wasn't hot didn't mean that normal pokemon electricity couldn't waste away somebody in high enough doses. This Zach character was not his favorite person ever.

Gauge looked about the room, checking it out. It was blank. The door had vanished. There wasn't any sort of way out that he could see, but nothing was attacking them. His x-ray vision wasn't doing a thing still, which was the only thing this place could do to truly unnerve him.

So Gauge, seeing no threat, allowed himself to start thinking. Remembering what he could. He knew that the people who had given him all sorts of drugs that had made him grow in size and muscle and such and literally built wings into him while he was still **awake** were the ones who had deliberately taken his memory.

He wondered why. He wanted to find out. It had to be important in some way, right?

"Being a human makes it really easy to ignore threats from pokemon." Zach commented as if he somehow believed that Gauge was going to bother talking to the human. "Not the talking type, huh?"

" _Why are you still speaking? Even if I could talk, would my words matter?"_ Gauge thought confusedly. The man could not understand him, so why was he trying to make conversation?

Too many questions. Gauge preferred to think about one thing at a time. Perhaps that was in response to having few memories in the first place, perhaps not. Gauge had no idea how memory loss worked or how it was achieved.

Perhaps he could ask Riley to find out. The boy probably could help with that. Anyways, he had to get back to watching out for everybody.

So Gauge did that until Riley woke and basically ordered him to sleep. Gauge did hesitate for a moment. "I wanted to talk for a bit." he decided to say.

Riley blinked, and went ahead and sat back. "Okay. Go for it." he replied casually.

"Okay… One question at a time." Gauge said, sitting down as well. "...How would memories be taken why would mine be taken what clues did you find in the power plant what is Amber and for fucks sakes what the hell was that flashing thing you did before you tore apart the metal?"

Gauge's run on sentence left Riley's head spinning. That was **way** more than one question at a time. "Try that again." he ordered.

"...How would memories be taken?"

"If you mean other than a psychic type, no idea."

"Why would mine be taken?"

"Not a clue."

"What clues did you find in the power plant?"

"Let's see…" Riley mused thoughtfully "There was the red crystal thing I heard them talking about, though they only said some cryptic sounding things like '' and such. The red absol that stole it used plasma like Scarlet can before running off, and apparently has a master or something, considering they said some things about a human girl or something, I don't really remember. Other than that, all I learned was the facts about the stuff happening in the buildings itself."

Gauge had not been expecting a longer answer to that question, and just nodded. "Thank you. Okay… What is Amber?"

"She's an eevee. And… Apparently… Also a vaporeon. I dunno. I once woke up with spike wounds and a bunch of different colored furs on me. I guess she can do that, and didn't know. It sure takes a lot out of her, though." Riley replied slowly.

Gauge inspected the eevee sleeping in Riley's arms, as she was when she fell asleep. "...Why is she always in your arms when she sleeps?" he added that extra question, curious now.

"She has nightmares." he said simply, flatly. They must have been bad if he was so harsh spoken about it.

"...Okay. What was that flashing thing?" Gauge asked. Riley blinked and looked at him.

"What?"

"When you were freeing me from that metal death trap, you couldn't budge the tentacles. Then, you got a determined look and you started flashing with light repeatedly before you tore the entire thing apart with such a display of strength it was insane."

Riley's confused look could set a world record for sheer lack of understanding. "Wha?"

"You, not strong enough, start flashing, strong enough." Gauge dumbed it down. Riley gave a small 'ah', and tapped his head.

"Took me a bit to understand what you meant. As for that… I have no idea what you're talking about. I wasn't flashing at all. I just… Knew that I had to do it. I had to use whatever I had to do that. I couldn't let you die."

"You've done this sort of thing before? Just… Gotten stronger out of nowhere?"

Riley frowned. "Well, yeah. The more power I put into it, the more time I take, the more power I can use. Is that… Not normal?"

Gauge shook his head. "It's not normal in any way." he replied shortly.

"...Huh." Riley paused for a bit, before waving his hand at Gauge. "Get some sleep. You've been flying all night, and all sorts of nonsense has happened. I'll keep watch."

Gauge had tried not to let the boy know that his wings were aching like hell. He nodded eventually and allowed himself to lie down. Not curl up, of course, but lie down nonetheless. Closed eyes. Resting. Perhaps not sleeping just yet, but resting.

* * *

Kurenai had some nightmares of her own. Of Zach stabbing Riley in the back, to be precise. Riley did not know this. He only saw her whimpering in her sleep. The boy held Amber in one arm and kept his hand comfortingly on Kurenai's head as she slept.

It had been several hours, and everything was quiet. Hours continued to pass, with most of everybody waking up. Amber was quiet about her little vaporeon episode, and Kurenai didn't say a word about her nightmares, though she let Riley comfort her.

Scarlet, however, had bandages on and was still resting. Her sleep was peaceful, but Riley worried over her burns repeatedly. More hours passed. Nothing. Literally nothing happened.

"We're trapped here…" Kurenai whispered quietly "The entrance is gone, there's no exit, the room is just big and square and blank…"

"Why is something so quiet part of someplace designed to frighten people?" Zach asked the big question.

Riley frowned. "Because it is supposed to scare us. I think we're expected to sit here until we **really** start panicking. We need to not panic. Even…" he started, before his face slackened. "Everyone, listen up." he ordered, gaining everybody's attention. "How many of us feel hungry at the moment?"

Most of them blinked. "Really hungry." Amber replied. Riley clapped his hands together.

"That's it. We weren't hungry before, now we are. It's making us think we're going to starve when we are not going to." he revealed. "It's easy to fear death when you see no alternative. So keep quiet for a bit unless you can figure out a way past this."

"Details." Zach added "For example. The hunger we're feeling is probably not actual hunger. We don't have to fear anything for a while, probably. We haven't been here long enough for it to be as bad as it is."

"We have been here for hours on end." Amber pointed out "We would be kinda hungry, but you're right. It's a bit more painful than it should be. I've been without food for longer periods of time than I think you have, considering team rocket fed me like once every nine hours or so to keep me alive at least.

"Why is it we have **two** disgusting abusive and destructive teams in Kanto?" Riley asked out of the blue.

"One of the teams has no identifying name at all. They just identify themselves with the letter 'X'" Zach explained. "And they are worldwide. They don't stay in Kanto and Johto like team rocket tends to."

Silence followed. Stomachs growled, and they tried to ignore it. Finally, Riley stood himself up and walked around the room once.

"Well?" he asked nobody in particular, looking around and up. "What about it, then? You can't trick us, you can't fool us. We're not afraid."

The room shivered.

Riley's brow rose. "Oh, didn't like that, did you?" he asked. "We're not afraid."

Another shiver.

Zach got it. "None of us are afraid." he said gruffly. The room shuddered a little harsher.

Amber smiled. "Not scared of you!" she stuck her tongue out at a random spot on the wall. Apparently straight up ridicule was more impactual than the earlier statement. There was a legitimate tremor now.

"I haven't been afraid this entire time." Gauge half-lied. He hadn't wanted to have his wings crushed after all.

"Scarlet's unconscious, so she **can't** be afraid at the moment." Kurenai offered although she was afraid. She thought about the fact that this place was alive and actively trying to scare her, and that scared her, and she was still a bit damp, and she was trying not to freak out. Riley's comforting presence kept her intact at the moment.

That wasn't taken well by the monstrous entity they were trapped in. Someone was in here that physically could **not** be scared? Impossible! Its foundation was starting to metaphorically crack and break down.

As well as literally crack a bit. Dust rained from the ceiling as cracks spread across the room in various places. Then, Riley laughed. A good hearty laugh. Now **that** caused an earthquake.

"Don't like laughter, do you?" Riley asked, teasing. His hair was covered in gray dust, as was everyone else at this point, but he was grinning like it was his favorite day ever, and the house of horror did **not** like it.

A groaning sound filled the air. Amber forced herself to start laughing too. Zach joined in, and only Kurenai and obviously Scarlet were not laughing. The House of Horror locked on to this, sustaining itself, finding the fear in Kurenai.

But Kurenai felt Riley pick her up and looked up at him. She saw his calm, warm smile. Her eyes, full of innocence and fear, meeting his. "We're winning, Kurenai." he whispered. "This place can't hurt us anymore. We're hurting it instead, and all we need is for you to look at it and tell it that you are **not** afraid. You gotta own it, Kurenai."

She was seeing images of waves crashing down on her, and Zach stabbing Riley, but at the same time she knew that the boy was right. They were fine. They were going to be okay, and knowing that, she felt her spirits lift a little bit.

"You're right." she responded. "I don't have to be scared."

A wailing sound erupted around everybody though they kept the reaction out of their actions. Riley only realized the danger when large pieces of solid gray unidentified material started falling away from the ceiling and the walls.

"Stay calm and get out of the way." Riley said, grabbing Amber and Scarlet in his arms and bolting. Kurenai found herself grabbed by the scruff by Gauge and he took off. On the ground took off. Not flying just yet.

Zach just took care of himself, sidestepping pieces of rubble as the house of horror made a screaming noise as it started to fall apart. The chunks of stone revealed a glowing light, presumably the outside of the place where this crazy place was built.

The light started growing brighter, tearing into the stone just as much as the cheerful air everybody was sending out as they tossed jokes and good-natured comments into the air.

"Never beaten anybody with happiness." Zach commented.

"Fitting, though." Amber put in.

Finally, the roof was basically gone and everybody could safely sit on the rubble and laugh and joke and generally have a good time.

"And then **you** go and go super eevee and save my skin, which I did **not** see coming." Riley said, rubbing Amber's head. The eevee tried to get him to stop, embarrassed that she was being treated like a household pet in his arm at the moment.

After about five minutes, the glow of everything around the house of horror brightened as the entity was destroyed, letting out a final wail and then everything flashed white.

Zach woke in the tree where he had been resting, only his wounds suggesting that he had been injured implied that everything had actually happened.

Likewise, everybody but Scarlet jolted awake at once back in the creepy hotel. Riley was still battered, and everybody was affected in some way shape or form. Kurenai shivered from the sudden drop in temperature, running to go get one of those towels in the bathroom to try and dry the rest of the way off.

But it was Amber who yipped out an alarming noise at the woman who had just **appeared** in the comfortable chair nearby the corner of the room. Riley's staff was at the ready in a moment, but he realized it was the woman he had met earlier who had explained the town.

She was looking at the last few pages of a book, which seemed to be writing itself or something.

"You." Riley said, sheathing his staff.

"Hello, Child." the woman said, closing her book. It was entitled 'The House of Horror'. "You are the first, you know."

Riley blinked. "What?"

"The first and the last." the woman said, "To defeat the House of Horror."

Riley's expression again rivaled the world record for cluelessness, which was his own record, actually. "What now?"

She smiled at the boy. "My boy, the House of Horror is a monstrous force within its own individual realm, that the ghosts of lavender town discovered many years ago. After a night had passed, the House of Horror could not retain its victims any longer, and they would wake up. No harm would have come to them if they remained afraid and did not defy the beast, which fed on that fear." she explained.

Now Riley got it. "Oh… And we weren't afraid when we were sent there." he muttered.

"Precisely." the old woman nodded "The House was threatened, and attacked. It became dangerous, as it sometimes does. By surviving, by defeating it, you destroyed it."

"Wait." Gauge said, suddenly looming over the old woman as if out of nowhere. "It's dead, then?"

"In a sense, yes. No ghost pokemon can ever send someone into that dreadful place. The fall of the House of has done the world a great service this day."

She received confused blinks again. Gauge stepped forward. "Lady, we almost died. We need some actual sleep."

Not exactly the response expected from people who were just informed they had saved everyone in the future from dealing with what they dealt with, but Gauge's eyes clearly explained " _We're tired, dammit"_

She chuckled. "Then perhaps you should sleep." she offered "Tomorrow you may be on your way. No time has passed for you here. You are safe here. Lavender town is the safest in all of Kanto, as the ghosts only wish to prank you."

Riley rubbed his eyes and then moved Amber into his arms. "Sleep sounds great." he muttered groggily. He knew that the old woman wasn't a threat, and he stepped back before toppling onto his back on the bed. "Good night. For as long as I need to be asleep.

"Amen." Amber snuggled into place in Riley's arms.

Gauge just kind of fell onto the ground on his belly, ready for a catnap to end all catnaps. Eventually, the old woman was the only one awake, except for Kurenai. The absol was dry as she padded around the corner and froze in fear.

"It is all right, child." the old woman stated.

"Y-y-you're the lady who vanished!" she shouted, "Who are you?"

The woman sighed. "The house of horror has had very few victims die in it's grip. It only attacks with the intent to harm when their victims are not afraid. Ghostly pokemon would sometimes send humans there as a prank."

Kurenai listened in with bated breath, her gaze locked onto the woman who was setting her book on the table beside her chair.

"I was old. Very old, as old as I look." the woman continued "Life had passed me by. Nothing could truly frighten me. However, I was not able to fight back due to my weakness. The House of Horror claimed me."

Kurenai's scared expression had vanished entirely now. She looked saddened instead. "I'm sorry…" she whispered. "I guess we helped you then, didn't we."

"You did, child." the woman said, Kurenai realizing that the old lady did indeed understand her, but before she could ask about it, the woman continued. "I never did pass on. Possibly due to my exposure to this city, possibly because I perished in the House of Horror rather than the real world. But I feel it clearly, I **can** go now."

"Wait…" Kurenai whispered.

"Your question cannot be answered, young absol." she interrupted "I simply understand, and that is enough. As I understand it, language is no barrier for spirits. I must go, little one. I fade already."

Kurenai blinked. The woman was definitely transparent. "Wait! At least let the others thank you! At least let me thank you!"

The woman pushed the book towards the edge of the table where Kurenai could reach. "That you are alive." she said, "is thanks enough." Her form adopted a spiritual white-blue coloring and became further transparent, before dissolving into specks of light.

Kurenai stared at that spot for a long, long time. The book was still there. The absol imagined that the woman must have said goodbye to her living family before departure, but this… This was something Kurenai wasn't sure she deserved. She had been part of the reason that the House of Horror continued to be able to attack them, and Riley, Gauge, and even possibly Zach would have died, no matter how much she disliked the saw-wielding man.

But that book, 'The House of Horror', stayed there. Kurenai was tempted to open it up. She hadn't seen the book editing itself, and so she did not fear pulling it down and opening it with her paw. She began to read as Riley had taught her, though she had to take it slowly.

It started by explaining what the House of Horror was. The writing of the book was in the sense of nonfiction, not attempting to scare her, which Kurenai found herself enjoying. The absol kept turning the pages, not actually feeling very tired.

The absol busied herself with the book, reading it all the way through. She was surprised to discover that the last third of the book described their experiences, also in the tone of nonfiction. She was not sure how to feel about that, but she read through her own experience and then closed the book. She had gotten no sleep.

Riley woke to find her curled up on top of his stomach, and she had moved the book elsewhere in the bed. He gave a mental chuckle at how she must have spent all night reading that book. Then he gave a mental sigh at the fact that if he tried to get up, he would have a cranky absol on his hands.

Gauge popped up at the bed, likely ready to get a move on. "Do you need some help?" he asked, looking at the sleeping Kurenai.

"Please."

Riley allowed the winged luxray to gather Kurenai's scruff in his teeth and slowly lift her up and away, somehow managing not to wake her in the process.

"Thanks." Riley muttered as he checked on Scarlet. The pichu looked far better than she had before. The redhead smiled and petted her head for a bit with his free hand, before picking her up. He would get her checked into the pokemon center to heal the last of her injuries.

Eventually, everybody had woken up, even Scarlet (Kurenai did prove to be pretty cranky, but everybody agreed. 'Don't just read an entire book when you should be sleeping, then!' the lot of them told her when she complained.

Riley looked at the book in his hand and eventually made a decision. Millicent picked her phone up way back in Cerulean, to hear that Riley had a 'donation' for her. One being sent over right that minute. He wouldn't say what it was, only that it was a book that she definitely didn't have in her library yet.

"Lucky you gave me your number, or that would have been a surprise." Riley said. Then, he hung up promptly.

Millicent stared at the phone on her end, a tic mark visible. "The guy doesn't know how to actually treat a phone conversation." she muttered, shutting it down.

"Well, that's sorted." Riley said cheerily, exciting the post office he had just learned to use and stuffing his phone in his pocket.

"You're terrible." Amber told him monotonously. "I mean it. You are pathetically bad at talking to girls."

"Huh? What are you saying?"

"Forget it." the eevee muttered, going back to batting boredly at her own necklace.

"Even I know that you're supposed to have an actual discussion." Gauge muttered.

They finally made it out of Lavender Town. Riley held the now sleeping Kurenai in his arms. The boy viewed the gates that Kurenai had crashed through with a lazy eye, knowing it was safe. Scarlet, restored by this point, was back in the action (though somewhat down after being scolded by just about everybody for causing herself to be injured so much.)

Everybody had admitted that if she had not done so, they all could have died, but what Riley was concerned about was the fact that she had not hesitated very much to do so. She was commanded to never use it unless there really was no other choice.

Riley walked onto the wooden walkway, viewing the sparkling expanse of water around them alongside the pretty islands that were covered predominantly by grass. The boy looked at the sleeping absol in his arms; she was snoring peacefully, curled up in his arms. Riley smiled.

"Let's go. Let's find a spot down the road where she can wake up without being surrounded by water again." he said. With that, the group walked off.

* * *

Ember stalked into the dark room, eyes blazing. Her fist slammed into the table in front of the man on the other side of it. "What the hell are you doing!?" she demanded, her tight gloves catching fire and scorching a portion of the wooden surface.

The blue haired man was unfazed. "Progress, dear." he replied calmly "My weapons are primed. You know this. And our pet freak has a new toy."

"You know what I'm talking about." Ember snarled. "I want that kid dead!"

The dark haired man stood up, illuminated now by the flames coming from Ember's hands. He wore a silver and white robe with what looked like a blue and white battle suit underneath, covering his chest. He wore simple black jeans and an odd sort of boots, that looked like a similar version of Mute's boots, yet they were not the powerful, inexplicable enchanted vibranium.

Embroidered on the shoulder of his robes was a white 'X'.

"You have proven yourself incapable of killing the boy yourself." the new enemy proclaimed, waving his hand dismissively. "So I've set Dizzy and her new accomplice to intercept the boy. And you know that Yellow is being hunted down by Mute, so the healer will soon be no problem to contend with."

"It's not my fault! He had more of that legendary metal!" Ember proclaimed.

"Shut up." the man snarled suddenly, a manic look in his eye out of nowhere. "Anyone with real skill can get past a **metal**."

"So you sent Dizzy!?" Ember shouted, used to the man's constantly shifting demeanors. "You sent that little girl?"

"The little, incredibly evil, incredibly useful, girl." the man corrected her. "Dizzy will make her new toy tear them apart."

Ember scowled and stormed away, leaving the room back in darkness. The man opened his laptop and casually tapped on the keyboard again, diagrams and construction projects popping up all over the screen.

And he smiled as he pulled up a single blueprint of some unidentifiable machine.

The smile of a madman.

* * *

 **Well then. That's foreboding, isn't it? I bet you're all wondering who this 'Dizzy' is, and why a little girl is more dangerous than a flame wielding woman. That will be explained. Not here. Water phobia inducing route partially bypassed by exhaustion? Sure.**

 **Please review, tell me what you thought, and have a nice day!**


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Bloodthirsty

**Hello, everybody. This is Hyperjade.**

 **Jango: And Jango.**

 **Amber: ...**

 **Jango: Amber~**

 **Me: That's enough, Jango.**

 **Anyways, this chapter is going to be... interesting. I don't want to say much, but you all probably know what's up with it after the foreshadowing of the last one.**

 **So before I spoil anything, and before the name of the chapter spoils anything, I'll go ahead and answer reviews. Or rather, Jango will, because I'm lazy and I want revenge for what Jango did a while back. Where he found that much duct tape I will never ever know.**

 **Jango: Not in a million-**

 **Amber: *Looks Jango in the eyes***

 **Jango: Okay! Okay! Jeez... Before I begin, I'm going to remind you all that I'm an asshole and will respond to your reviews like an asshole- Amber don't look at me like that! Fine! I'll be sort-of nice. That's the best you're gonna get out of me.**

 **Alright. Haha... No, Riley can't catch a break. His suffering is the driving force behind so many jokes that to change it would remove some of the humor we all feel (admit it) watching him suffer.**

 **Alger and West have shown their faces in last chapter's reviews too. Of course I've watched anime. Hyper hasn't watched nearly enough of it because he's a pleb, but he knows the fear that a bloodthirsty little girl can cause.**

 **Huh. New guy, eh? Well then. I hope Phillip warned you about me, What Lies Beyond. Heheheh...**

 **More Anime conversations. Hyper came up with Dizzy and he doesn't even watch animes with psychotic six-year-old girls. Mute too. Like that guy. Capable of crushing somebody's skull with zero remorse... The pain he causes!**

 **And of course Raven. She's going insane. I would like to imagine I had something to do with that. Have fun with this chapter.**

 **Amber: And try to remain sane, Raven.**

 **Jango: Oi! I'm doing the reviews!**

 **Amber: Jango, just stop. Just... Stop. Just... Read the chapter, please.**

* * *

 **Chapter Sixteen: Bloodthirsty**

It was dark. The moon shown above the water's surface, as the small waves lapped against the bridge in the distance. A campsite was nearby, with very oddly shaped ground. Ledges rose above the rest of the ground by around four to five feet. The sight was interestingly peaceful, as the illuminant moon cast a calm light upon the land.

A little girl sat on a small ledge overlooking the water, smiling broadly. Her small legs kicked as they dangled over the ground three feet below. Her right eye remained closed, but the other, her left eye was wide open and bright. Her left eye had a five pointed star shaped pupil.

She looked to be about six years of age, and her blond pigtails that reached her waist were tipped with pink. The girl wore a skirt that reached her knees and a T-shirt, her little tennis shoes bouncing against the stone of the cliff that she sat on.

Behind the girl sat a sylveon. The pokemon was absolutely silent, eyes wide open and unblinking. Both of the pokemon's pupils were the shape of a five pointed star as well. Two rings of things circled the sylveon. Decks of cards made up rings around her body, which crossed in front of her and behind her, floating. Closer to her body, the sylveon had four single cards facing outwards with the letter 'T' in place of a number, and a single mark on each; a heart, a spade, a diamond, or a club. Furthermore, the sylveon wore a cloak that shifted slightly in the wind and had a hood, the hood of which was of a unique design, with the image of a cat's face on the top of it.

The decks floating around her were very diverse. There was a deck that had flower patterns all over the backs of the cards, and the cards themselves were circular. There was a deck of cards with a black and amber coloring, and each deck had distinct features as well.

And then there was the circle. Beneath the sylveon glowed a magic circle of sorts that held the symbols that the cards around her did, and a large double heart image showed underneath her. Ethereal candles were positioned at four points around the circle. The sylveon was absolutely still.

The light of the strange circle attracted the attention of a nearby fisherman. Living nearby, he decided to investigate. Walking into the area to see the girl first, and because the ledge was short, the sylveon next.

"Hello, little girl." he greeted her "Are you lost?"

"No." she said, turning an innocent looking eye on the man, "Who are you?"

The man thumped his chest proudly, as he often did when he introduced himself. "I am the fishing guru's younger brother." he said. The girl smiled at him, her big green eye looking at him while the other remained closed. The well known fisherman with a habit of gifting fishing rods to trainers wondered at why her other eye remained closed.

"Ok." she said blandly, and her smile suddenly changed. The fisherman shivered as she looked back at the sylveon. "Tricky? He's perfect, right?"

The sylveon didn't respond. It didn't so much as twitch. The girl sighed. "Try to make a thrall laugh…" she muttered, and turned that smile on the man. "Kill him. Make him bleed."

The man stepped back. "What-" he started, before seeing one of the decks of cards splitting into individual cards in front of the sylveon in a cloud of cards. "Wait!"

 **Sh-sh-sh-shsh-sh-shing!**

"Guh!"

 **Whump**

"Now, my thrall… Make him bleed some more!"

 **Sh-sh-sh-sh-shing!**

* * *

Kurenai awoke during the night. There was a gurgle of water, but it was a distance away. She jolted up, looking around, seeing that she was in a clearing alongside the water, as the lengthy bridge connected to the clearing before moving on.

She was going to be surrounded by water again… Kurenai shivered, recalling again how she'd nearly drowned when she was a kit. Anybody would be frightened of water after that, right?

But she went back to sleep. She knew that the trip was going to be pretty long across the really large bridge, though it did have several stopping points that she knew of. At least, she figured as much. It wouldn't do for the trip to be all bridge, would it?

Kurenai rested until she was awoken by a noise. "W-who's there?" she asked, looking about. She stood up, careful not to wake the others, and walked to figure out what that noise had been. Silently she slipped into the undergrowth, and the cracking sound came from very close to her. She panicked a bit until a small dedenne released some sparks to make its presence obvious.

Kurenai sighed with relief, and walked away back to camp, while the little electric type turned around, revealing star shaped pupils in the moonlight, and walked away almost robotically.

Kurenai next woke up because Riley picked her up. "Mornin'" he greeted her, Amber and Scarlet in their places on his shoulders, Gauge stretching in the background. "We've got to cross this bridge, so… If you want me to, I can carry you the whole way."

Kurenai felt extremely embarrassed. "N-no… I have to conquer it someday, right?" she stammered, leaping from his arms and trying to walk towards the water.

Five minutes later, Riley carried the embarrassed and fearful absol along the bridge as they walked. Amber wanted to tease the girl, but she didn't. She knew what fear felt like. She knew what it looked like. She didn't want to hurt Kurenai. Now Riley, he she would tease all day if he was afraid of something.

The eevee took to looking around as they walked. 'I spy' answers were: water, trees on the shore, or wooden planks. It was relatively quick going, as Riley walked at a decent clip and Gauge didn't show any sort of exhaustion.

The water did look beautiful though. Reflecting the light of the sun, glittering constantly… This area was beautiful. The islands just out to the left were simple grassy areas, though some looked like surprisingly good spots for a picnic… If you could get your picnic over the water to it, that is.

The bridge was simplistic and strong, wide planks of wood stretching across the water alongside the treeline. There were houses as well, on occasion. One part of the bridge was connected to an island with a house on it, which Riley went and knocked on the door of. Four hours had gone by by this point. Considering how the flew by, Amber wasn't surprised to hear Gauge muttering about being bored.

The door wasn't answered. Riley frowned and knocked again after five minutes. Still absolutely nothing. At midday? Really? He tested the handle, and the door swung open easily.

Growing suspicious, the boy walked inside. The place looked like a fisherman's dream. Bait and hooks lay everywhere, sometimes in tangled piles. Fishing rods sat in a basket nearby, several of the same type, and the table was set. And had food on it.

This bothered everyone. "Nobody just leaves freshly cooked food lying around." Gauge said as he walked up and sniffed the plate with cooked fish on it. Riley nodded in agreement, his face stoney, expressionless.

"It's cold as well." Scarlet murmured, after jumping off and feeling at the food on the table "Like it's been sitting out all night and longer."

"Something's wrong here." Riley muttered, looking around. He quickly looked outside, looking around for any sign of life. Nothing. Nobody. "Gauge, can you smell somebody?"

"Yeah." he nodded "I can follow it."

The winged luxray led the others out of the building and towards the nearest bridge to the mainland, an area with ledges everywhere that had campsites atop them. It looked like a naturally made playground for parkour enthusiasts, the way that the trees seemed somewhat distorted and the ground seemed like it was pulled out of the earth in places.

Gauge froze. "Blood." he growled. He snuck around a small incline in the ground that hid away a certain lower area of this campground, while Riley silently hopped above the cliff face to look downward. All caught their breath.

"Damn…" Gauge muttered, balking for a moment.

"Holy shit…" Riley whispered, while Scarlet and Kurenai squeaked in fear and hid their eyes as best they could. Amber, for her part, had seen herself die some pretty gruesome deaths in her nightmares, but even she felt bile rising in her throat at the sight.

Blood pooled all around. The remains of a man lay on it's side, thankfully not facing the group. He had deep cuts all over his body, just about everywhere on his entire body. He had been shredded apart by something, several somethings, like bladed projectiles striking all at once, and then he had been attacked again, perhaps from above.

"I can't even get any definitive features. He's so messed up." Gauge said as he braved walking around the corpse to take in what was left of the face "I don't think anybody could ever ID the boy by looks alone."

Riley whipped out his phone and pressed the button to call the nearest police station. It connected in seconds. "Jenny, We've got an empty unlocked house with cold food on the table and a corpse." he stated clearly and instantly as soon as the lady picked up.

"What!? Where are you?" Jenny asked over the line, taken aback by the boy's tone.

"Along the route south of Lavender." the boy told her.

"We'll be on our way. What does he or she look like?"

"He, and I don't know. There's too much damage."

Riley snapped the phone shut after answering some more of Jenny's questions, and stated his decision to find out what had done this.

"There's a dedenne here too." Gauge called from the other side of another ledge a ways away. "It's got the same wounds, and it's been torn apart by them."

"Dedenne weren't commonly found around here until a few years ago, I think." Riley muttered "That pokemon habitat book said so. They kind of moved in."

Kurenai started, peeking from behind her claws. "A dedenne?" she asked, suddenly hopping over to look. She nearly threw up looking at the corpse, but she looked at it's eye.

"Normal…" she muttered "Not the one I saw last night."

Riley came over. "What did you see, Kurenai?" he asked. The absol turned to him.

"I saw a dedenne. Looked quite a bit like this one, but I can see pretty well in the dark. That one had these weird pupils, like five pointed stars." she explained "I didn't think much about it, but it's eyes were normal. And it looks like it took less damage than the human."

Riley nodded. "All right. Odd pupils aside, we need to find who did this."

"H-how can you be so calm?" Scarlet asked, her face still buried in Riley's shirt.

Riley's face darkened. "I'm not." he growled "Gauge, find scents that you can that might lead to whoever did this this."

"...Yeah." Gauge replied slowly, sniffing around. The horrid smell of the corpses blocked him for a while before he caught a whiff of something else.

Everyone got away from the area, while Gauge tried to find it again. When they got a ways into the forest, Gauge did find it on a fallen log. He began to follow it without a word. Riley moved as well. He found a place he could easily find again with landmarks, and put Scarlet and Amber down. "Stay here. I mean it." he ordered, before backing away and then following Gauge away from the three girls.

"Hey!" Amber shouted "What if you need us!?"

"Then I'll go knowing you three are safe. If I am gone more than a few hours, then you may try to follow me. But **only** then, and if I failed, if I **died** , you three contact Yellow using my phone if you can use it. I know Amber knows how." He said. Then he was gone, with Kurenai and Scarlet holding Amber back from them.

"Amber, he's right. We'll just get hurt." Scarlet tried to sooth her friend "and Riley got us a good hiding spot here."

The girl continued to struggle. "That guy was so badly messed up and there wasn't any sign of a struggle!" she protested.

"And we'll die just as quickly. You know Riley wants to keep us safe." Scarlet said sternly.

Amber finally stopped struggling. She looked in the direction Riley had left. "I have the feeling that this is a huge mistake…" she whispered.

Riley dashed alongside Gauge on their way out of the woods and onto the bridge again. They sprinted along, racing with a speed worthy of an olympic runner, bypassing some benches, one occupied, along the way.

Gauge skidded to a halt, and Riley followed suit. The human boy saw his friend sniffing the air in a confused way he recognized. "Are you serious?" Riley asked, avoiding looking the other way.

"Yeah…" Gauge replied in a whisper "That little girl and the sylveon."

"Something was wrong with the sylveon." Riley noted, still not turning to look at the two they had passed. "It's feelers were limp. A sylveon's feelers are **never** limp, even when sleeping."

"What should we do?"

"...Turn around."

At Riley's words, they spun on the spot to view the little girl and her sylveon standing there on the wooden surface. The little girl was waving cheerfully, but the sylveon with all of the cards floating around her and wearing a cloak was utterly silent.

"Hi!" the girl exclaimed. She sounded far too cheerful for someone with blood splattered on the front of her shirt. Her open eye was unfocused, and her movements were a little… Off. "People call me Dizzy!"

This was not a time for witty comments such as 'I can see that'. Riley was very tense. A man had been horribly destroyed by whatever attack one of these two had used. He was also tense because that sylveon was acting almost as though she wasn't even alive. Just staring straight ahead. Star shaped pupils stared blankly, unblinking, straight ahead. Not even acknowledging Riley's presence. Or Gauge's.

"Okay, Dizzy." Riley replied "I'm going to lay this out right here. I don't know what you've done to that sylveon, but it's acting like it isn't even alive. I don't like it when people hurt pokemon, capishe?"

Dizzy just stared at Riley with an eerie smile that had Gauge shivering suddenly. There was definitely something dark buried under that image of a six year old. "Furthermore," Riley continued "we have a dead man and a dead dedene. There is a problem between us, kid, and you can either release the sylveon, and come quietly, or…"

He readied his staff "We can beat you down and take you into custody."

Dizzy paused for about ten seconds before starting to giggle uncontrollably. "Hee hee hee!" she giggled, bringing her green eye up to look Riley in the eyes. "I have… A better idea." she proclaimed. "Tricky!"

The water splashed all around Riley, and a set of cards rose, all facing inwards, with backs that had a pokeball symbol, and all of them had a symbol for lightning energy within them. Each card crackled now with energy.

Riley's eyes widened. "Trap!" he yelled, leaping up and away while Gauge took flight practically instantly. Lightning flashed together from the ring into the center of the ring of cards, unleashing a very large explosion.

Riley landed on the deck as the effects of the explosion faded away. The cards sailed over to the sylveon and added themselves to the deck that they had come from. Gauge landed next to him after swooping around.

"That was too close." the luxray grumbled.

"I agree." Riley said, racing forward at an intense speed. He blurred and was directly in front of dizzy, about to strike. His eyes widened. He danced away from the flurry of cards that nearly sliced him to ribbons. The circular, flower print cards flew back to the sylveon, coalescing into a deck again and continuing to circle her.

"Alright, Tricky!" Dizzy cheered, pumping her fist in the air. Then she stared at Riley with mock-innocent eyes. "Let's play a game! How many cuts can a superhuman withstand?"

Riley zipped back as more cards came for his face, and then he was forced to retreat more, and more, blurring between streams of cards and leaving afterimages.

Gauge moved as Riley was forced to retreat all the way back to him, and the luxray felt a cut emerge on his paw. Dammit!" he roared "These cards can cut straight through us!"

Riley cursed as the cards all returned to the sylveon in a flurry. The pokemon had sat down, and a magic circle of sorts appeared around her with ethereal candles present.

"How many decks does that girl have on her?" Riley asked the luxray.

"About ten in each of those rings, all unique, and two decks of black cards concealed within her cloak at her sides, as well as those four cards with the letter 'T'." Gauge replied, looking through the Sylveon's clothing to make sure there were no surprises. **Not** to be… Peeking. Not that.

"The black cards?"

"I think they might be metal."

"Oh, **wonderful**." the boy said, exasperated.

"Oh, boo!" Dizzy called "Not so sporting, are you? We were playing a game!"

Riley stiffened at the girl's words. Gauge knew that he bantered at times, but the people he did that to were the types that could be bantered with. This kid… She was insane. "She keeps her other eye closed." Gauge ventured "Think that's an opportunity?"

"I don't think so. With that sylveon around, there's not going to be much we can do in the way of getting to that girl. We have to knock it out." Riley told him.

"Let's go." Gauge decided.

Riley bolted forward, waiting for the attack to come from the sylveon. It didn't come at first, and Riley quickly changed directions from going towards Dizzy to going towards the sylveon. The wind travelling behind him in a slipstream, he appeared in everyone's view with his staff aiming for the card wielder's head.

 **CLANG** …

One of the black decks of cards shot out from under the cloak and spread out into the shape of a kite shield automatically, the staff slamming into the pure black metal cards as they protected the pokemon. There was a standoff for a moment as the black metal held off the white metal without yielding, until Riley used the odd shield to kick off and jump far away.

"Hee hee! You can't hurt Tricky!" Dizzy cheered as the metal deck came back together and stowed itself away in the sylveon's robes. "Now, my thrall, rip him apart!"

Riley was backed up against a little boulder, which would provide an inconvenience, so Gauge took the initiative to swoop past and grab Riley by the shirt with his teeth as he whipped past, taking him away from the offending cards that were ready to tear him apart.

Riley and Gauge stopped back where they had started, having swooped around again. They weren't getting anywhere, and they knew it. It was only a matter of time before this bloodthirsty little kid ordered that sylveon to do something even more dangerous with its cards.

"Maybe we should go and get the others and run." Gauge supplied "We can't get close and we might die trying, the girls need us and we can then warn Jenny not to-"

"There are other lives on the line, Gauge." Riley reminded him "They'll just find somebody else to attack. Remember that dedenne? Kurenai said it had stars for pupils. We found that one dead. They killed it after Dizzy was done with it."

"Then how are we going to get past the card throwing Sylveon?" Gauge asked, bracing himself to continue fighting.

"Throw a lightning bolt at it. Don't hold back, but don't exactly waste your reserves either." Riley said, "And don't kill it, all right?"

"Stun it. Understood." Gauge replied, his fur lighting up and continuing to flicker. "I'll buy you a few seconds."

Riley barreled forward towards the smiling psycho. His staff at the ready, he left an afterimage and shot towards his opponent.

Gauge fired his lightning bolt at the same time that Riley poured on the speed, aiming directly for the sylveon.

 **KRACKOW!**

 **CLANG!**

The smoke cleared. There was silence for a while. Riley's staff was inches from Dizzy's skull, brought down with enough power to crush it. However, between them was a kite shield made of black cards. "No…" Riley whispered, before the outer layer of them twisted and shot back at him, slashing through his shirt and skin like it was nothing, leaving the boy to leap away with a bleeding left arm and shoulder. Gauge, for his part, found his target covered by a shield of cards that were similar to the lightning ones, though they had a ground type symbol on them. They were interconnected by glowing brown lines, and had easily neutralized the lightning.

Riley gripped his arm, hissing in pain. He was separated from Gauge as well now. "Gauge, get over here!" he called.

The luxray moved to obey, but he suddenly found himself in quite a bad situation. The dull-eyed sylveon had brought a card around, and suddenly something leapt from it and grew. Standing before the flying luxray was a trapinch.

Gauge tried to move, but his feet were locked by the newcomer's arena trap, sand collecting around his paws and holding him down on its own. The trapinch had white eyes, and it looked fake somehow. A fake pokemon, summoned from a card. "I'm in trouble!" He exclaimed in return, causing Riley's eyes to widen. He dashed forward, moving to strike Dizzy again. As the deck of black cards shot from under Tricky's cloak to protect the psycho girl, Riley instead bounced off of it and sailed overhead.

He landed straight on the trapinch, bashing its head in with his staff. The fake pokemon dissolved into light quickly, and the card that Tricky had used faded to a dull grey, though Gauge noticed with a sinking heart even as his paws were freed that the card was slowly beginning to return to its color, as if it just had a cooldown or something.

Dizzy got an idea. A vile, destructive idea. "Tricky! Show me the dragons again!" she ordered. She was pulling all of the strings, but that didn't mean she didn't have to enjoy the looks on her enemies' faces as she uttered some of those commands aloud.

"Riley…" Gauge muttered "I'll get us in the air."

Riley paused. "Yeah." he replied hesitantly "Good idea."

Riley hopped onto Gauge's back, like he would ride a steed, and Gauge was off as the sylveon pulled two more cards out. One was one of the element cards, and another was one of those with the brown and amber colored backing. They depicted beings on them, and underneath them appeared a different set of cards, cards which looked like you could see through one and out the other, and their backs were blue with images of gates on them.

Out from the cards came white-eyed fake dragonite and a large white dragon that the others couldn't recognize as any pokemon they knew. It's blue glowing eyes exuded an outward power, of course. The other cards changed sizes by a huge margin, one the size of the dragons, one massive and facing upwards, and the fakes leapt through the ones that were their size and emerged from the card that grew to the size in house. As they emerged, they appeared far bigger, larger than the average house for example.

"Shit!" Gauge swore.

"The tricks just keep coming." Riley agreed as the two wheeled away from the dragons, who were soon soaring after them, their wingbeats unleashing a huge amount of wind in the general direction of everything beneath them.

The luxray was a faster flyer than the fakes, and being small certainly helped a bit. They knew they needed to take these down before anything important was destroyed.

"Take down the dragonite. I don't know what the other one can do." Gauge suggested. Riley nodded, and the two switched directions and soared down at the fake dragonite.

It's antennae fired off a massive laser at the two of them, which Riley proceeded to absorb with his staff with little effort and the pair swirled around and Riley struck the back of the giant dragon's neck with all of that power condensed.

The explosion did not harm Riley, but it sent him flying high into the sky as the beast was sent crashing downwards into the water but did not fade. In open air he slowed, his acceleration appropriately negative nine-point-eight meters per second, and barely fell for a second before he twisted and landed on Gauge's back. "Glad you learned how to fly properly."

Gauge bit back his retort. They had things to do. The dragonite was not down yet. And the other dragon was now approaching from the other direction. Both dragons began to converge on them, though the blue eyed white dragon was soaring a bit low…

"If you'll excuse me…" Riley said as he tossed himself off of Gauge with no clear reason.

"I hate it when he's reckless." the luxray muttered, looping and diving after him. The boy fell in a free fall for a while before the giant white dragon swooped by him. He snagged a spike and was whipped along by the behemoth.

"The fuck is that idiot doing!?" Gauge asked, though nobody was around to answer. He kept an eye on the dragonite, who was charging another hyper beam.

The dragon pokemon unleashed it's fury at Riley, who absorbed it again with his staff. Then, Riley located a gap between the scales of his new ride and plunged the entire force of the giga-hyper beam straight into the body of the white dragon.

The roar that followed had Gauge's ears ringing, as Riley was once again sailing through the air as a result of his attack. Gauge caught him and then swooped away from a hyper beam again.

The white dragon crashed straight into the silent bridge, and drove along through the water in it's crash for about a mile, destroying an entire mile of bridge. Both males winced at the sizeable collateral damage.

Then Gauge realized that the hyper beam from before was coming back. "Hold on!" he exclaimed, diving in time to avoid being obliterated. Riley did hold on, checking on the dragonite. It's antennae were glowing, and the beam it had was changing directions like it was bouncing off of non existential mirrors.

"The dragonair and dragonite line can redirect their beams! I forgot!" Riley exclaimed, proceeding to absorb the beam again with his staff. He proceeded to reflect on the fact that without his beloved weapon, they would have died two dozen times over on their journey.

After a few rounds, Riley noticed that several scales were missing from the original blast he had put into the dragonite's neck. "Get me around to the back of that thing again." he ordered "And- Gauge! Mind its wings!"

Gauge cursed and spun underneath the giant wings as he went to do as asked, coming up behind the thing. Riley leaped and plunged his staff directly through the exposed part of the dragonite, unleashing the beam into it's body and unleashing another explosion, this time within it's body. The dragonite gave a final roar and began to fall, dissolving into white light as it fell over time. Riley hopped back onto Gauge as the luxray made another swoop.

"That's one down, but- **DUCK!** "

Gauge dived as an incredibly large blue tinted white laser scorched the air above them. "This is not the time for one liners!" the luxray snarled as he dove towards the partially recovered white dragon, which was building another attack. The part that Riley had blasted was slowly dissolving into white light, but the dragon was still functional, and it was clearly not happy.

Gauge swooped at it quickly and Riley got an idea. "Not yet, pull back!" he exclaimed, then whispered "Get it to blast the area nearby Dizzy. Maybe she'll be disoriented."

"On it." Gauge swooped low and pulled up at the last moment to avoid the strike, which exploded violently in the water. Then he shot forward as fast as he could. Riley leaped with his staff now crackling with some of Gauge's electricity, he plunged it straight into the blue spotlight of an eye, which darkened as the dragon wailed and began to dissolve into light.

Gauge grabbed him and tried to move quickly to face down their true opponents. Still swamped by the unexpected bath, only the Sylveon had not reacted to the soaking. Gauge shot forward while Riley leaped off and moved to strike, moving as fast as he possibly can, scoring a hit on the sylveon's flank before the metal cards could form their shield.

The sylveon went sailing and Gauge pounced on DIzzy, his large paws holding her down. "One move and you die." Gauge growled, letting some electricity loose into the girl's body, who spasmed and went still.

"Holy shit, that was difficult." Riley wheezed as he put his hands on his legs to rest up a bit. He wasn't **that** tired, but he was bleeding a bit, which he shouldn't be doing.

The two of them heard a chilling sound. The child under Gauge was giggling. Harshly. "Hee hee…" she murmured, closing her left eye. "You think you've won."

"We have." Gauge snarled shortly, digging his claws in a bit more "I will kill you if I have to, so don't try anything."

"Hee hee hee hee…"

The little girl started opening her right eye very slowly. Riley's and Gauge's breath caught; There wasn't any sort of eye in her eye socket. Instead was a red spherical gem with a yellow five pointed star in the front in place of an iris, a star that spread out to nearly where the gem was no longer visible. Gauge went to strike at her neck and finish the fight…

But his legs didn't move. Gauge tried to ask 'What the hell is happening', but his mouth didn't move either. He struggled to move, to act, to **breath** , and his body only shivered as he made the attempt. He was stuck. "Gauge?" Riley asked, worried that the luxray wasn't saying anything. Then the boy's eyes widened as he heard a weak whine coming from Gauge's throat, as if he was trying to say something.

Then everything slammed into darkness for Gauge, nothing, no feeling, no vision, nothing at all. On the outside, his pupils morphed to match the star shape in Dizzy's left eye. Riley took a step back, hearing the sylveon emerging from the water on the bridge behind him, sitting down quietly and emotionlessly, that magic circle reappearing. some cards followed her and joined with the decks around her.

"...Gauge?" he asked.

"Now, please, mister lion, get off me." Dizzy commanded. Emotionlessly, immediately, the luxray obediently stepped off of her and faced Riley with dull eyes. His tail hung limp. Riley began to grow worried. He had not known this would happen. Dizzy… Could be more of a threat to him, to them, than he gave her credit for, even without the sylveon being forced to act as a bodyguard and weapon.

Gauge's fur began to be coated in electricity, sparks dancing along the individual hairs. He growled, likely due to Dizzy's mental command. The little girl was giggling as she began to close her freaky eye and open her normal green one.

She gave Riley that stare, that innocent looking stare that hid a lust for destruction and hatred... and blood. "Hee… Kill him." she ordered Gauge, who instantly leaped straight at Riley with a snarl building in his throat.

"Gauge! Buddy-" Riley was cut off as he put his staff in the way of the luxray's claws and absorbed the electricity before kicking the luxray away. He realized that reasoning was pointless. His friend was now an enemy. And… Riley didn't know what to do. He couldn't hurt Gauge, he couldn't hurt the sylveon more than he needed to… And Dizzy was there to destroy him and everyone he was associated with. He couldn't leave and assume Gauge would be taken care of; the boy would find his friend torn apart somewhere, if he found his body at all.

This monster was going to win if Riley didn't figure out something quickly. The boy shrank back from his friend, unwilling to harm the luxray at all. Gauge stalked towards him, driving the boy backwards. He was backed up against the sylveon, who was not attacking. Dizzy must have found difficulty controlling multiple targets.

The boy walked right over the sylveon as he backed up, realizing he was running out of surface, until he was in the water. He couldn't go that far; Dizzy would make poor Gauge electrify the water without hesitation.

The boy waited until Gauge leaped to sidestep and run towards Dizzy again. As the luxray splashed into the water, the sylveon whirled into action, her cards coming together to form a cloud of fast moving projectiles that further injured Riley's left arm and began the process of damaging his right. His chest was covered in cuts as he managed to get by, his silver shirt mostly unusable now.

He grunted as he made it past the sylveon, despite having gained plenty of new wounds, and ran at Dizzy, only to be knocked aside from some identified attack by the sylveon. He was in the water, and he swore and splashed to the surface, seeing Gauge climbing up out of the water and sparking a lot. The boy cursed yet again and scrambled out of the water before the luxray could electrocute him so badly that his heart stopped.

Now he was panting, standing up with the support of his staff. He had used a lot of his energy, especially when moving faster than he had ever done before. Dizzy had moved to be between her two thralls when Riley got his bearings. She was protecting herself from him. The sylveon summoned a bunch of smaller pokemon and some other creatures to defend Dizzy on the bridge.

Riley would have to face an army, and that trapinch was back, keeping his feet in place. He had nobody to help him, nobody to save him from that arena trap. He knew what he had to do, how he had to act, but would it work? He had no other option. If he failed, he would die.

Gauge lunged at his old friend, his body trying to rip Riley to shreds. Riley ducked as low as he could, raised himself, and hurled his staff straight through the crowd at such a speed that none of the sylveon's cards could get there in time. An impossible shot for any other human.

The heavy end of the staff struck Dizzy straight in her closed left eye socket that concealed the gem, and a ringing sound was heard. The sylveon collapsed instantly, as did Gauge, and all of the summoned creatures vanished. Riley was freed, and the boy leapt, and collected his staff before jumping back.

He had seen Dizzy's eye and had not been controlled. He kept at that distance away, preparing to close his eyes and attack where the psycho was going to be. She needed eye contact, and she needed to be close. The two pokemon were unconscious, so it was the human against this horrible monster.

Dizzy got to her feet, holding her left eye and grimacing. She saw her thralls down, and began to panic a bit. Her open eye watched Riley warily as she realized that she no longer had control of the two powerful pokemon.

She opened her other eye, but Riley was keeping his distance and as such was unaffected. Had he been closer by chance, she would have both of them. And she would have been able to make Tricky kill them without any resistance.

Riley closed his eyes and started walking forward with his weapon prepared. "You've lost, kid. Give up." Riley told her.

The girl shied away, and then decided that it was not going to be over just yet. She bolted away, faster than Riley had ever seen somebody move. He tried to strike, and missed.

"What the hell is up with that girl?" he asked himself, before checking to make sure she was gone and then running to the pokemon on the ground.

"Come on you two, get up." Riley commanded, shaking the unconscious luxray and letting the sylveon lie there for the moment. He had seen the feelers of the pokemon begin to move around again, meaning the sylveon was back to normal.

"Gauge, now is not the time for sleeping." he said sternly, this time his voice loud enough to wake the heavily muscled pokemon. twitch.

"Shut up." he muttered, his ears flicking.

"No, no shutting up." Riley said, suddenly picking up the luxray and holding him over his head, the pokemon's massive bulk tiring him further out, but Riley didn't show it. "Just wake up before you land on your face"

He unceremoniously dropped Gauge to the deck, and the luxray managed to twist his feet under him to prevent a nasty impact. He got up and shook his head violently. "Man… I feel **terrible**. What happened, why are you bleeding, what did the crazy chick do to me?"

"What she did to the sylveon." Riley said bluntly as he walked over and picked the sleeping sylveon up, her cards staying nearby her as they spun around her, just at an angle that they had shifted to to avoid being in the way of Riley's arms. The sylveon shifted in her sleep, already waking up. This was odd. Should she not need a lot of rest after all of that?"

"Hey, you waking up?" Riley asked, ruffling the fur on her head by rubbing the hood of her cloak. "You coming back to us?"

he turned to Gauge. The luxray asked his question now. "If that freak had me under her control…" he trailed off. Riley frowned.

"it wasn't your fault." the boy stated, going back to trying to wake the pokemon. This simultaneously confirmed Gauge's question and denied his responsibility for it. The sylveon, for her part, awoke to see Riley's eyes.

"Hmm… Darkness? No, not him." she muttered, and then she stiffened, waking up fully.

"The name's Riley." the boy replied, setting her down and letting her stand and view

"...It was dark for a long time…" she muttered, shivering. Her numerous card decks shuffled themselves. "Hi. I'm Tricky."

"Gauge." the luxray stated gruffly.

"Have you got any information on the girl that attacked us and had you in your grasp?" Riley asked quickly. The sylveon stiffened and began worrying about the fact that it wasn't **here**.

"Yes, I know about it." she responded.

"It?" Gauge asked.

"Well, you should probably explain before that psycho girl gets herself some more pets." Riley said, crossing his arms. Tricky noticed that they were bleeding with numerous cut wounds, clean wounds. Fresh ones as well. She had probably done that.

"First, sorry about hurting you. I assume that's what happened when everything was dark for me." she apologized "And that… Girl… Isn't the monster. The thing in her eye is. It was supposed to be a magic energy converter, which would allow someone to put their own energy into it and use that energy to heal the wounds of others. Unfortunately, it was made wrong, and it became malignant. Aware. It began controlling people it came nearby. That girl… Was its first thrall."

Riley blinked. "And it… Ended up on her eye socket? That means-"

"That it made the girl tear out her own eye and put that thing instead?" Gauge asked  
"That's… Nasty."

"You said it." Riley grimaced, deciding **not** to tell the sylveon about the fisherman if he could help it. "Tricky, what can it do?"

"It gathers energy just by being exposed to natural energies like sunlight." she began to explain "and it contains that energy by being sealed, say, in an eyelid. It uses that energy it gains to make it's thralls move, giving them more life energy than they would normally have and sustaining them. They don't need food, water, or rest while under control. Because it uses it's own energy to sustain them, it can't do something like control an army, but someone like me, who doesn't use much physical energy when fighting and instead uses card magic of basically any type, isn't too hard to control. It also has an easier time giving energy to a form it is directly in contact with."

"And…" she continued "It can find almost anything. I myself and not certain how it does. But the amount of things that it can find that are hidden away-"

Riley had frozen, rooted to the spot. "Gauge… Are you able to fly?" he asked, and the luxray tensed.

"The girls." he understood, and Riley grabbed the surprised sylveon, and leaped onto Gauge's back, making certain that his staff was secure in its sheath. The luxray launched himself, flying high above the treetops and headed back to where he knew the hiding spot would be. His x-ray vision would come in handy often.

Through the lush green forest he dived, finding where they would be hiding, and found an empty stump. "Shit!" Riley swore, running to the place and finding nothing. "They're gone!"

Tricky busied herself with her cards. She had something that could help, she remembered it. A single, clear card-like object emerged from the mixed deck in one of the rings circling her, and then used her two space altering cards to move the first card through and make it bigger.

She focused, watching as the area in front of her shifted and turned back rapidly, looking through to what had happened. A useful card, this one. She had so much time to make the ones she had. They were a source of pride at times, but now, looking at the image, she knew that those three girls were in trouble.

Riley joined her as they watched the three female pokemon looking around. "When will Riley get back?" Kurenai asked, sounding very worried.

"He might not." Amber replied darkly "And if he doesn't, I'm going to find his corpse, revive him, and kill him again."

" _That's a bit harsh"_ Most everyone, in the past or not, thought in unison.

" _I haven't been the best friend to her, I suppose…"_ Riley thought " _She must hate it when I put myself in danger, but I don't have a choice, and I won't put her in danger."_

He forced himself to watch as Dizzy herself walked out of the bushes, her eye quickly closing before the other girls saw her.

Scarlet whispered a question about whether this girl had seen Riley, but Amber shoved her paw over the pichu's mouth quickly.

But Dizzy walked straight for their hiding place and looked straight at them with her green eye. "Hi!" she said cheerfully.

Amber clearly was feeling some sort of foreboding feeling as she looked at the strange six year old, but Scarlet and Kurenai were evidently fooled by the unassuming little human girl with the cheerful smile. "Hi." Scarlet said "Hey, did you see an orange haired boy?"

"Tall, has a staff," Kurenai continued

"Hotheaded. Stupid." Amber muttered "Throws himself into the line of fire like a moron."

" _Ouch"_ Riley thought to himself, knowing what was going to happen but unable to stop it. He couldn't help but feel stabbed by Amber's words.

"Oh? I saw him!" Dizzy responded "Tried to capture me. Yeah. He wasn't too nice."

The girls stared. "...What?" Amber asked "Tried to-"

The other girls began to move as they understood what was happening, but dizzy slammed her palms against the stump they were hiding near, and opened her right eye, closing her other eye. Giggling maniacally, she stared straight into the eyes of the girls.

"No…" Riley whispered, his fists clenched, his right hand pointer finger knuckle cracking twice as he did so. "No, no, no…"

The pokemon were shivering, trying to move their bodies, to so much as speak, perhaps call for help, but Gauge knew the moment that their vision slammed into blackness, as they tilled completely, and their pupils shifted into the shapes of five point stars.

"It would be so fitting to tear into the redhead with his own friends, wouldn't it?" she asked, though nobody could respond. She looked around with the gem exposed, probably drinking in sunlight and replenishing its energy. "Yeah. i like that. If I can't make him bleed with you three, you three can just make each other bleed in front of him!"

Dizzy promptly pranced away into the forest, Kurenai, Amber, and Scarlet following without hesitation, acting robotic. The image faded away back to normal, and the cards resized themselves and flew back into tricky's mixed card deck.

"How can that thing be killed?" Riley asked quickly. He unsheathed his staff "Because I will tear that thing into little pieces as painfully as I possibly can if I harms the girls."

Both Tricky and Gauge shivered at the tone he took, having not heard it before. "Well, the gem isn't indestructible. I looked at it; it had a hairline fracture in it, probably from where you struck it and woke us up. Your friends could probably be released if you hit the eye again."

"Then let's go." he growled, walking in the direction that Dizzy had gone with his friends. If they were harmed in any way, he would find the absolute limits of the pain that that thing could feel. The negative aura emanating from the boy promised death and destruction, and Tricky shivered at the sight.

"Dizzy made it personal." Gauge figured under his breath so that Tricky could hear "And when it has to do with people Riley swore to protect… I think he's scared more than anything. Scared that he's going to lose the people he's charged with protecting. And loves, too, I think. It would be like…"

"Losing family." Tricky understood, and the two pokemon ran after the boy.

* * *

The nightmares returned for Amber. The moment that little human girl opened her eye, Amber couldn't move, couldn't call for help, and then everything had slammed into blackness. Then, she was back in the forest, filled with the red sky, the rocky, jagged ground, and the midnight black trees.

She shrank back from what she knew would be coming. The eevee looked around, unable to see a threat for a while, but it would not be too long until she would die painfully in some unique way.

A sea of tiny spider looking things were coming at her from all directions, slowly, but surely. The trees' bark was smooth, and unyielding, so she could not climb, and the sea of crawling spiders Normal spiders, not like pokemon.

But they looked to have small bits of poison dripping from their fangs and their miniscule eyes glowed red. Amber feared them, tried to back away, but was utterly surrounded. " _It's just another dream"_ She told herself " _I'll wake up sometime. I have to."_

That did not make the pain feel any faker. The spiders crawled up her legs in a black and red mass, swarming over her. Their bites hurt so bad that she was in tears at each stabbing feeling, twisting and trying to throw them off even as they forced their way into her mouth and all other open orifices, eating her from the inside more than the out. Amber, shrieking, fell to the ground and twitched repeatedly as she was torn apart.

Then she was back in the forest again, awaiting her next death. These nightmares had not ceased since those team rocket members had done experiments on her, the same experiments that had seemed to give her the ability to use her necklace…. Amber desperately wished that Riley was here to keep her in his arms and stop her nightmares again, but she did not know where he was or where **she** was.

The last thing she remembered was not being able to move when looking at the freaky gem-eye of that creature, whatever she was. She had heard Kurenai whining, and Scarlet had not moved from her spot, so she knew that the two of them were in a similar position.

As the scenery changed and she found herself under a bloody guillotine, she wondered if all three of them were already dead.

 **Shing!**

That had probably been the least painful death that Amber had experienced in her life, even if the blade was dull.

* * *

Hours later, Riley sneaked up on the clearing. The group had walked for a long time. It was starting to become night, and the darkness was falling.

"I can't believe it took so long to find this little shit." Riley muttered, looking at the entrance to the clearing. "You told me that being under the effect was like sleeping, and if so, Amber will have been suffering for hours…"

"I told you that it rarely tires. It has likely been charging energy this whole time, and it only has to stop moving because it got dark out." Tricky reminded him in a whisper. They were in a concealed location, which was lucky, because Dizzy obviously wasn't alone.

Kurenai sat stock still at the entrance to the clearing. The absol's eyes were roving slowly back and forth endlessly, keeping an eye out, likely ordered to alert Dizzy if anything came around. Amber was stationed in the clearing elsewhere, separated from Kurenai, ears constantly moving yet at a slow pace as well. Scarlet was on the other side of the clearing, both her eyes and ears moving automatically.

Riley's knuckle cracked twice again, thankfully not loud enough to alert the pokemon below. "Using them as guards…" he muttered. He did not mention what else he saw, but it was clear to everyone who could see the absol.

Kurenai's horn had blood on it, as if she was attacking something. Scarlet had some wounds that were bleeding somewhat, dripping blood on occasion around her. This monster had forced them to hurt each other just for her amusement. Amber had a wound on her flank and a nick in her ear. Kurenai did not have any wounds on her, but if Dizzy got to keep moving, it was only a matter of time…

Tricky sent her wild cards, the ones labeled with a simple capital 'T' to circle around the group, and then sent another card to orbit them on the exterior. "Silence…" she whispered, and the cards flickered to life, giving off a slight illumination.

The group chose an entry point where none of the pokemon were visibly looking, and walked in. Tricky had explained to them that the spell would be broken if they made too much noise or affected something in the environment at all, they would be exposed.

Thankfully, the grass didn't seem to qualify as something that would expose them, if they didn't tear it up too badly. Riley approached the girl, his staff ready to free his friends and end the fight. Without hesitation, he swung it for her exposed eye where she kneeled on the ground.

 **Thump!**

Dizzy's hand shot up and grabbed the weapon. "Hee hee hee…" she whispered "I'm smarter than that."

Riley slammed his eyes shut and tried to leap away, but his staff was stuck in her grip and he was **not** letting that go. "I've been saving up energy for this alone **all day** , and now, I'll maim you and kill you so horribly that your blood will hide your identity for days from the police, and you know what? Any extra blood that doesn't cover you and pools up, I'll make your friends drink it right up!"

Riley's staff wouldn't move at all in her grip. How much power did she have? How much was she using up keeping him in place?

"Riley!" Gauge shouted, closing his eyes and stepping beside him, holding the suddenly very mobile Kurenai's head before she could slash open his leg.

"We're in trouble." Tricky proclaimed, on his other side with her eyes closed, her card kite shields up and prepared to block electric attacks and keep the eevee at bay. Unfortunately, the sylveon could not tell where they were other than what she could hear, and Gauge feared that if he used his x-ray vision to see through his eyelids, Dizzy could take advantage of it.

Dizzy continued to giggle maniacally, before reaching behind her and pulling out a cleaver. "Messy weapons, cleavers." she said "Perfect."

Riley heard the weapon being drawn, and felt the motions that his staff was going through during their stalemate. How Dizzy had gotten so much energy, he did not know, but he feared the the blood on Kurenai's horn held the answer. Perhaps Dizzy had taken more lives on the way here, and took their life energy? it was meant to transfer life energy anyways. Dizzy must have accumulated power all day, while they were messing around in the forest trying to find them. They had not found any dead bodies, but…

Riley used his feelings, understanding where the girl was moving, and shot his left arm out to catch the arm of the girl wielding the blade. Now they were at a double standoff. Riley's determination pouring strength into him, and Dizzy increasing the power it was using.

Riley began to force the knife back. "What? No!" Dizzy shouted, before a surge of energy caught RIley by surprise and his staff and the blade came forward quickly, bashing him and sending him flying with neither weapon. He crashed into a tree and opened his eyes, knowing he was far enough.

"Tricky! Gauge! Get back!" he ordered, causing the conscious pokemon to scatter in time to avoid either weapon. This was really bad. Dizzy had probably used a lot of it's energy in attacking like that, but it was still standing. Riley, on the other hand, felt drained himself.

Amber raced to attack him without hesitation. He prepared himself, twisted around the eevee, and grabbed her by the scruff and chest, holding her in place. The eevee thrashed, trying to hurt him, but she could not.

He hugged her tight to his chest with his arm that was keeping her chest in place. "I hope this stops your nightmares for a while…" he whispered. Tricky had leapt away and was distracting Scarlet, careful not to hurt the pichu, but Dizzy had clearly learned of her plasma beams, and the black metal card shields were barely holding the beams back, scattering and then reforming.

Gauge was doing his best to avoid Kurenai's claws and such, opting to eventually hold her by the scruff, and lie down with his paw holding her horn in place. He was stronger than the absol by a huge margin.

Tricky used ground type energy cards in an interesting manner, sticking them to Scarlet's body and neutralizing the electricity, stopping the pichu from attacking and thereby burning herself. Riley and Tricky could move, but Gauge could not.

Gauge closed his eyes as he lay there, but Dizzy was approaching him casually, her knife spinning in her fingers in a rapid manner. He couldn't unleash any electricity without hurting Kurenai. He knew this. Riley did not know how to attack without getting close, and he was holding Amber down. Tricky, however, unleashed a storm of those circular cards around the monster.

They slashed straight through the skin, but Dizzy barely reacted. The cards did not have the ability to damage the eye enough to release the effect of it, and they bounced off. Dizzy obviously wouldn't care about the extra wounds; the body it was in was another thrall that it's had for arceus knows how long. Tricky tried attacking by scattering one of her shields as weapons, but those too bounced off of the eye and otherwise didn't bother the slashed up and bleeding six year old.

The mostly bloody girl leaned down in front of the immobile Gauge, who was trying to protect Kurenai and keep her from moving. He flailed a paw at her but failed to hit her in his blindness. He again did not risk his x-ray vision. She put her small hands over his eyelid. "Wakey wakey, little kitty" she crooned, forcing the eyelid open and opening her own eye to attempt to control him.

Riley was in motion, his foot swinging to kick the girl away, but he just found his own staff blocking his strike. He was forced back by a rather absentminded swing by the little girl as Gauge was forced into submission.

"Son of a bitch…" Riley whispered as Gauge stepped off of Kurenai and both began to advance on him.

"I really ought to use less energy. Maybe I could have one of them die? Go ahead, kill one of your friends!" Dizzy laughed, completely in control of the situation.

"No." Riley said, preparing himself to fight.

"Then I'll do it. Kitty, go and eat the little pichu right up!" Dizzy exclaimed, and Riley watched in horror as the luxray instantly leapt towards Scarlet, who was no longer moving.

Tricky slammed him in the face with a card-shield, forcing him back. "I will protect her." she proclaimed, serious. The pichu could do no harm.

"Oh, boo…" Dizzy pouted "and it was just getting good! My old thrall, you are a spoilsport!"

Kurenai continued to advance on Riley, while Dizzy continued to giggle with her knife and Riley's staff in her hands. Riley tried to come up with something, but he didn't have anything. Dizzy clearly had energy to spare, as her confidence showed. Tricky was with him, and that was it, and he didn't even **know** her.

He balanced on one foot and easily parried Kurenai's constant attacks, not expending much energy doing so. He began to develop an idea as Dizzy seemed to be considering a new strategy (the six year old was tapping her head with the flat edge of her knife repeatedly).

He knew that Dizzy was directly connected to the people she controlled. He started to whisper to Amber, trying to fake believing he couldn't be heard. "Amber… I know you're in there somewhere. Just… If Dizzy tries to transform you, don't let her, alright?"

Riley knew perfectly well that Amber could have no such control at the moment. But Dizzy instantly exclaimed "What a great idea! She can do that!? Amber, little fox, change and attack him however you can!"

Amber instantly shifted into a vaporeon turning her head up and firing a large amount of water at RIley's chin, which knocked his head back. He forced her head down and the spray hit Dizzy, pushing her back a bit.

"No baths!" she said, "Go jolteon then!"

The vaporeon became a jolteon as the yellow piece on Amber's necklace started to glow. And then Riley got the shocking of his life, continuously attacking him. He toughed it out with little problem. "It'll take a lot more electricity to take me down." he proclaimed, "I do have the endurance of the pokemon, y'know."

"More! Zap him more, my thrall!"

More electricity surged from the jolteon, bringing Riley to his knees. Still Riley kept the jolteon in his arms, despite being stabbed in the chest and arms by Amber's spikes, and starting to bleed pretty badly, being physically damaged by the electricity, and still holding on, Riley stayed strong.

"Become a flareon and burn him! Burn your precious friend to a crisp!"

Now Riley was on fire. The flareon in his arms was on fire, cooking him up, melting the remainder of the metal in his shirt. He was finally forced to drop the flareon, and dropped to his knees. Burns covered his body, his metal shirt was hot and seared his skin, and he was bleeding in a lot of places.

Amber turned to face him, and opened her mouth. A sphere of flame began to build within it. "I'll make sure your blood is scattered so far that nobody could put you together again even if they **could** find it!" Dizzy exclaimed, getting in the defeated boy's face and not bothering to take control of him. "I'll make your friends **eat** you, because that'll make it easier to sustain them for a while, and then I'll make them slaughter each other, and poor little redhead will be dead already, unable to beg them to stop. Burned black, bloody, and electrified, and most gratifying…"

She stuck his staff in his face. "Dead. And I'll be keeping this too. I like enchanted vibranium. ANd bludgeoning people could be more gratifying than slicing them up, too. I'm already invincible, and with this, I can't be hurt even if someone stronger comes along! I'll keep your luxray alive just to fly places and Tricky will be under my command when I'm done here, leaving me at least two incredibly powerful pokemon at my disposal to do with as I please. I'll cut the others to pieces, feed them to the lion, and make dear Tricky lick up the remaining blood, and the best thing…"

She poked him with the staff "There isn't a thing you can do to stop me!"

Riley lowered his head, losing energy fast. She spun away. "I think your luxray will like his food cooked black." she said, as Amber began to launch her fireball.

And only coughed out sparks. She flashed and devolved, collapsing. Gauge, Scarlet, and Kurenai collapsed at the same time. Tricky blinked as her cards returned to her, confused.

"W-what? Stand up!" Dizzy ordered. She backed away a few steps. "What-"

Riley lunged and ripped his staff away from the girl, and gave her a whack in the closed eye quickly, knocking her down. She scrambled back, though her movements were sluggish. "What happened!?" she exclaimed, getting to her feet and backing away.

"Amber's eeveelution forms use a ton of energy." Riley explained "And you just used up every last bit of power you had left in you, leaving only enough to use that body you're connected to. That girl's been dead for a long time, hasn't she?"

"Not while I reside in her!" the monster snarled, brandishing her knife. "She'll die the moment I'm removed!"

"Then there is no point calling her alive." Riley said simply "She is already dead."

The girl lunged with the knife, but Riley grabbed her wrist and twisted the knife out of it, taking it in his own hand. He drove the knife into the girl's eye socket, promptly popping the gem out of it with little effort, which was good because Riley was on the verge of collapsing.

he picked up the gem, facing the star symbol away from him to avoid being controlled, if there was any power left. The girl's body dropped to the ground, no longer breathing, blood pouring from her eye. "This is for everyone you killed." Riley said, his body flickering rapidly as he forced himself to be determined, his strength increasing for a final attack, and he crushed the gem in his hand, grinding it down in his palm with his fingers. A horrible wailing erupted into the air, as streams of dark red power flowed out of the gem and spun around Riley for a long while before coalescing into a sphere of shadow and proceeding to dissolve and fade away.

Riley poured the stardust between his fingers out onto the ground. Then, he collapsed, and everything went black.

* * *

Amber's nightmares had faded for a while after hours upon hours of being tortured and murdered repeatedly in her sleep. Riley's astral image was projected fighting the mechanical horned beast with glowing white eyes that was trying to gut her with it's corrosive blade, and he had fought off several enemies for a while, and then he seemed to begin to be developing wounds.

"Riley!" Amber cried out "What's happening to you!?"

horrible burns began to appear on the boy's body, where his shirt was melting. Melting! As if he was fighting somebody who could use fire, and he didn't have his staff? Did that mean he was disarmed and that Ember had come back? what did it mean?

Amber couldn't see his attacker, and was horrified to see him fall on his knees, looking as if he was breathing heavily. A flareon stood before him, tail unmoving, with eyes just like her amber colored ones. Except they were dull, and she was charging a fire attack of some sort at Riley.

Amber cried out a warning, but the boy didn't move. There was a whispering in the background, and then the fire died out, not burning Riley to a crisp. The flareon collapsed and devolved into her, and Amber felt like she had taken a hit in the dream, feeling exhausted. her nightmares began to fade away as she called out weakly, fearing for Riley's life.

Then it was dark again, and her nightmares began again after a while of just darkness. It was almost with a dull acceptance that Amber awaited for her next excruciating death, as Riley's astral image was gone and the ground was shaking as spikes started to erupt from it in the distance and slowly spikes erupted into being closer and closer…

* * *

Tricky was trying to wake Riley. The cloaked sylveon had managed to get the scorching hot remains of the silver shirt off of him, discarding the shell of melted metal, as the metal lace had become more solid and unyielding as a result of melting together. His burns were really bad, as were his electrical wounds.

But he was alive. All of them were. Nobody died in this horrible mess of a battle. Gauge had already woken up, and had quickly explained that he was hoping to keep Kurenai safe and had not anticipated that the girl would be strong enough to force his eye open like that.

A somewhat weak excuse for not clearing out when he should have done, but the situation was stressful and nobody died.

The boy was shirtless, which normally would turn the girls' heads away, but the only girl that was awake, Tricky was trying to fix him. She muttered to herself as the numerous cards floating around the boy and sending small pink streams into him only did so much to heal the damage. Those burns might turn into nasty scars that haphazardly marked up his entire upper body.

Police sirens could be heard miles in the distance through the forest, likely at the bridge. Tricky assumed that the police had been called by Riley, as she had seen nobody else present. The road was less commonly travelled of course.

"What are you going to do now?" Gauge asked from where he was carefully cleaning the blood from Kurenai's horn, hoping that she would never have to know that she had hurt Scarlet and probably more pokemon.

"I have to find Angelica." Tricky announced "Mistress Magic. The Golden Girl. Guardian of Magic."

Gauge looked up. "That's more titles than anyone needs." he commented.

"She doesn't like the 'mistress' name much." Tricky smiled "So I make an effort to tease her by calling her mistress at times."

Gauge shrugged. He didn't know what she was talking about at all. "I guess she can't be so bad of a 'mistress' if she takes that in good humor."

Tricky smiled. "There are times when It's gotten me into trouble, actually. Well, trouble isn't the right word with Angelica. She's fond of high-end magical pranks that I can't easily reverse, despite my connection to her."

The sylveon suddenly shuddered, remembering a **certain** incident a long while back.

Gauge raised a brow, but eventually forgot about it as Kurenai was waking up. "Mm… Where are we?" she asked.

"Safe." Gauge grunted in reply. "We're safe. I think everybody's going to be mostly okay."

Kurenai relaxed, and Gauge shifted so that she couldn't see Riley just yet. Meanwhile, Tricky went to go fix up Amber and Scarlet as best she could.

"W-where are we?"

"Somewhere else. You're going to be alright, Kurenai."

"I-I have this bad taste in my mouth… What is this?" she asked, gagging somewhat. Both Gauge and Tricky were silent for a while.

"So…" Gauge started "How did you get caught in the first place, Tricky?"

A reasonable question of course. The sylveon was quiet for a while still. She had just started feeling like her old self again, and then **this** question comes around. "I was looking for the gem." she said "I was tracking it down because it was a dangerous magical item. But I didn't know how much it had developed. It tricked me, and I walked into it's trap and became enslaved by it. It was dark for so long. I was in shock when I awoke again, having thought I was never going to truly see the light of day again."

She shuddered "That monster was so, so powerful. And intelligent, and it was defeated simply by your friend's trickery. Gauge, I would say that Riley here is a much better strategist than what meets the eye when one looks upon him."

Gauge looked at his fallen battle partner. He knew that he had nearly screwed up the entire mission by choosing to keep Kurenai on the ground where she could not be harmed, but he had been compelled to do so, and he didn't think it was Dizzy doing that.

"He's a bit self destructive, but he does it to protect the pokemon around him.' Kurenai spoke up. "Where is he?"

Gauge tried to keep her still, but she stood up and moved around Gauge, viewing Riley in full. She yelped and ran over to him, ignoring that he was shirtless and seeing all of his burns and injuries. "He-he'll be fine, right?" she asked, whirling on the two, and just now noticing that she hadn't seen the sylveon before.

"He should be alright, but he may be scarred heavily by the burns left by his shirt when it was melting."

"Why was it melting?"

Gauge got up and padded over to her. "Kurenai, do you remember that girl that made you black out?" he asked. She nodded, shivering. "That's her." he pointed straight at the corpse with its gem-eye missing.

Kurenai nearly fainted, backing away from the mess, the lifeless green eye staring out at her. "That…"

"That is the creature that could control us. It had Tricky here in her grasp when it started, but after Riley gained the upper hand earlier, she retreated and found you girls, and enslaved you. Riley just finished killing it off and rescuing all of us." Gauge informed her.

Kurenai's eyes couldn't leave that lifeless green eye that stared at her. She couldn't stop shivering. Gauge walked up next to her and set his large paw on her head, rubbing it. "She'll never be able to hurt you again." Gauge promised. He to was unnerved by the dead look in her remaining eye, but he did not show it.

"T-took control of us…" she whispered, and Gauge stiffened. The absol looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. "Gauge… What did she make me do?"

Gauge didn't want to answer. He **couldn't**. Kurenai would be devastated. The girl did not like violence, and was so innocent compared to others… If she knew that she might have killed someone… Unfortunately, his silence was enough to convince her that she had done terrible things. She started to back away, trembling horribly. "No… I didn't…" she whispered.

"Kurenai!" Gauge yowled suddenly "Nobody here is hurt because of you. Your body might have taken action against others here, but don't you dare, even for a second, think that you are responsible!"

Kurenai literally leaped in surprise at Gauge's tone. She stood there, cow-eyed and stunned at his outburst. Tricky likewise brought her head up, a few cards hanging from her mouth that she was using. Both looked quite comical, but the situation was still serious.

"Yes, Dizzy forced all of us to attack each other at some point." Gauge stated bluntly "But it was not **us**. Never would we do such a thing. Kurenai, please… Calm down and we'll all get past this situation and recover. None of us are dead. Period."

Kurenai didn't say anything for a while while Tricky went back to fixing up the gash on Amber's side, mentally noting to herself that it would have been Kurenai's horn that did the damage but not saying it aloud. With the tension finally beginning to leave, she felt like she needed to get back to Angelica. She could use a possibly insane all powerful friend at the moment.

The other girls woke up far before Riley did. Amber, upon being informed what had happened, felt really bad that she had not told the three of them to run immediately, but was also **pissed** that nobody had taken Riley's phone and alerted Jenny to their location. She yanked out the phone and dialed Jenny's number, and pretty much began barking at it before she turned on Riley's police tracker as well.

"Did I melt his shirt like that?" she asked quietly once she was done scolding Gauge for letting him just lie there without aid incoming. "He's really badly injured."

"Remember, he's got super healing." Scarlet piped up "He'll be fine in a third of the time than normal, maybe half if he's unlucky."

"Good point." Amber said. **Then** she noticed the sylveon standing there with her cloak. "And you? Who are you?"

"My name's Tricky." she replied. There wasn't much else to say. Amber's eyes narrowed. "Are you the one that-"

Gauge promptly stuffed his paw in her face to shut her up. "Tricky's here to help." he said.

They waited around for a while, Amber and Scarlet making sure that Riley was in a better position than face first in the dirt. When the paramedics arrived along with the officers, they found a bunch of strange pokemon and one very badly damaged boy.

"Oh dear…" Jenny said as she checked up on him. "What happened to him? Who is the girl?"

Amber tried to explain, but the lot of the officials were clueless. Frustrated, Amber grabbed Riley's phone and rang up Yellow. "Yellow, translate." she ordered, showing her face and then pointing the phone at Jenny and set it down again. "The little girl present at the scene was called "Dizzy" and was the one that killed the man by that house near the water, and Riley killed her slash it off and now he's badly injured and needs help, and-"

"Amber…" Yellow interrupted "I understand pokemon by reading their minds and emotions. I can't do that over the **phone**."

Amber acquired a thunderstruck look at that revelation, her plan for communication shattering into little pieces instantly. Finally, she pointed the phone at Riley, letting Yellow gasp in surprise and fear, and then pointed it at dizzy, putting her paw into the view of the camera in the phone, and made a series of motions that pretty much meant 'bad guy'.

Yellow eventually put the pieces together and tried to explain to the officers, while the smacking sound of Amber facepawing at one point had Yellow switching up what she was saying at that moment. The officers were pretty surprised that the little girl was the enemy, and that she had done so much damage to a reported battle machine of a human.

Tricky had to stop the officers from picking up the pile of stardust that used to be that gem-eye, collecting the dust in a summoned container from one of the cards and closing it tightly, then returning the box to the card. That card floated away into its deck of cards and she walked off to stay near Gauge and Kurenai and Scarlet.

Amber, for her part, was repeatedly smacking around one of the officers that tried to pet her. The other officers laughed at the one man's predicament, while that man protested that she had looked **adorable** until she started slapping him back and forth for invading her personal space. She preferred Riley to any other human, perhaps except for Yellow. That girl was alright, though apparently useless over long distances.

The recently updated police handbooks included **not** messing with the pokemon under Riley's protection. Seriously, they had learned from the trail of destruction of enemies in the power plant that it's a mistake messing with pokemon at all. To be more accurate, they looked at the portion that detailed that pokemon should be treated with as much respect as humans, as they were known sentient beings, and basically tacked on a more formal version of 'or Riley's going to get you.'

It was of course more complicated than that, but the message came across.

The group of humans got out a stretcher and set Riley upon it, carrying him off as best they could in the middle of the forest. The pokemon followed behind, Amber hanging up on Yellow with a button press and gave the phone to Tricky to put up on the stretcher with Riley using one of her ribbons, which could reach further.

* * *

Yellow slumped back as she turned the phone off. It was still dark. She had been woken up. Now her eyes were filled with an unidentified emotion, her phone clutched to her chest. Amber hadn't sounded happy, and a little girl had apparently nearly killed the boy. Was Riley getting that reckless?

She hadn't even gotten to know what the situation was about when Amber hung up on her. The girl was uninformed about Riley's situation, and had only seen him shirtless and badly burned, with darker marks where something molten must have made contact with his skin, perhaps his shirt had been melted. She tried to lighten her mood by mentally scolding Riley for wearing a metal shirt at all times that can more easily be melted.

It didn't work. Yellow lay on her bed again, wide awake now. How could she sleep? This is the second time Riley's nearly gotten himself killed after she left. Maybe it wasn't his fault, but she had just walked out on him for something as silly as a job. Admittedly an important one, but…

Her challengers were beginning to fade away into the normal everyday amount of challengers as those that were waiting before petered out. Maybe soon she could excuse a short leave to see him, but today was not that day. Even so… Even without an excuse, she wanted to go. She had no idea what was going on over there, and she hated it. " _It's because Riley so rarely checks in with anybody that I get no updates."_ Yellow reminded herself.

Her pokemon, also awakened by the ringing phone, expressed similar concerns for the boy in their minds, knowing that Yellow would hear it. She clenched her eyes shut. She **couldn't** be thinking about this! Riley could handle itself, and he was alive, and that was what mattered. What could she have done? Not much. She knew that.

It took many hours for her to fall asleep.

* * *

Riley was bedridden. The boy hadn't awoken yet, while the paramedics that were inexperienced with the boy proclaimed that the burns would indeed leave scars all over his upper body. Everybody but Gauge and Tricky stayed near him.

"Where will you go, Tricky?" Gauge asked the sylveon.

She thought about it, and eventually replied "If Angelica doesn't want to appear, she won't. I hope I'll see her again, but for the moment, I will strike out on my own. The Guardian of Magic is random, unpredictable, and frankly, if you guys get caught up in the kinds of things she does, like play around with reality in ways that cannot be evaded by others… If she decides to play around with your lifestyle, she can do it with a snap of her fingers. Considering that I'm a friend of hers, I don't want you to be in the line of fire when she finds me."

"Hey, if she's so powerful, why didn't she go save her good friend from a bloodthirsty psycho?"

Tricky gave Gauge an odd look. "She's in charge of keeping track of an infinite multiverse." she replied "and… Well…"

She trailed off. She couldn't bring that up in front of people who were starting to trust her. She would prefer that they didn't know about **that** mistake before she was off. "I'm going to go searching for Angelica where you guys will be out of the line of fire, so…"

"We won't be seeing you then?" Gauge asked.

"If you meet Angelica, you'll probably meet me again, if Angelica's noticed that I'm looking for her. A few magical beacons should do the trick." Tricky said, and one of her decks of cards floated in front of her and started shuffling itself as she read the cards in that deck. Finally, she pulled out a card and tossed it to the luxray. "That should come in handy. I'm going to go try and find Angelica and also try and… Maybe try and get over what I know that monster Riley killed made me do, probably over and over again."

Gauge understood. Not about the random card with no clear purpose, but about trying to recover. And in his opinion, if she was basically drawing fire away from them, then that was pretty damn heroic. "Sure thing. you should probably stick around until Riley wakes up though. He'll want to see you off." Gauge replied

"Okay."

Amber kept her paw on Riley's hand, worrying that he hadn't woken up yet at least. "C'mon, Riley." she whispered "Why are you still asleep?"

* * *

 **Well, then. You can probably tell why the chapter is called 'bloodthirsty'**

 **This is Hyperjade, by the way. I was informed of the botched opening A/N by Amber, so I'm front and center again. So things aren't the greatest in this chapter for Riley. Dizzy's made these characters do some pretty horrible things for the most part, not the least of which Tricky, who's appearance and abilities are derived from the mascot of the youtube channel Trickywi, specifically from the DeviantArt image entitled "Tricky the Sylveon" by R-no71.**

 **At any rate, that was one of my more bloody chapters, and if you guys would please tell me what you thought about it that would be great. So please review, tell me waht you think. If you enjoy the story, you can follow it to recieve notifications regarding updates of this story.**

 **Thank you all for reading this chapter, and have a pleasant day.**


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Forward Driven

**Hey, everyone. This is Hyperjade. I've got to admit, I had clever stuff to say, but after FF glitched and I lost all of the previous starting A/N, I'm just gonna start with Reviews. Defeated by my computer...**

 **Jango: Hey, we're back online! You got it working again! Brilliant! Anyways, as we were responding to What Lies Beyond and everybody else, I maaayy have caught Frost in one of those rope ankle traps. Amber's off freeing him right now. I wish you guys had been there when we were bantering about it before.**

 **Me: Yes, well... I hope Amber gets back soon. Anyways, let's move on. I'm tired... Jango had nothing to do with the events of the chapter, West. Just... Some of the writing. I made him take it easy with some of the descriptions.**

 **Jango: *pouts***

 **Me: Anyways, let's quickly move on to Zero Lunar. Gauge is a very large luxray with very defined muscles and very large raven-like black wings on him.**

 **I can't directly answer ArataTheLegend's question.**

 **Jango: It's our job to be unique and unexpected, Phillip. My job in particular.**

 **Me: Anyways...**

 **Jango: Loving the anatomy physics breaking there, Arc. Do that myself all the time. Anyways, yeah. Dizzy's bad. Hyper and Amber would be pretty unhappy with me for spoiling stuffs, so I'm not gonna talk about Tricky and how her connections to Magic works.**

 **Me: You might be surprised. When something is happening near you, if you can hear it or feel it when asleep, and are still dreaming, it is possible to dream about those things... To a certain degree of detail. At least, it happens to me. As for human speech, that's really complicated for creatures with differently functioning vocal cords. You do recall Riley teaching the others to read, or at least starting. Talking like a human as a pokemon probably isn't quite like learning a different language in our world. They have to learn to use their own vocal chords to produce the same sounds, and not all pokemon would even be able to accomplish it.**

 **Have fun with your Homework, Raven. In fact, you should get to sleep. Again. You are going to drive yourself insane.**

 **And finally, LucarioKing1008. I cannot answer your questions. Or rather, I will not. The first one is easy enough to guess, of course. I am glad that you enjoyed the story... Enough to reiterate your love for the story four times.**

 **And that's that. Read on, everybody.**

* * *

 **Chapter Seventeen: Forward Driven**

Amber wanted to smack Riley awake. She frowned down at his face. Eyes closed, face calm, absolutely unconscious.

"He's not going to wake up because you're staring at him," Kurenai spoke up as if called.

"A watched pot never boils, just as a sleeping human will not awake if stared at." Tricky added, despite not actually looking at what was happening.

"What's keeping him asleep?" Scarlet asked. "His burns are pretty much healed up, scars not included."

Tricky frowned upon hearing this observation as she continued putting cards from various decks together to attempt to combine their effects or change them.

"Not all of the burns healed," she reminded the other girls. Tricky walked up to the boy and nudged open his hand.

"Right…" Amber muttered "That one…"

His hand was burned very badly, with blood red colored burns diagonally lining his palm and fingers like a zebstrika's stripes. The angry red unnerved everyone, even after several days of waiting.

"Why won't they heal?" Scarlet asked.

"That was the hand that was holding Dizzy's eye when he crushed it," Tricky explained. Her chosen variety of cards spread out in a ring around his hand. "I have been trying to find a way to heal the burn, but I have not found the right combination of magical energy. And it seems to be… Resisting."

Scarlet looked Tricky in the eye. "Resisting isn't good," she deadpanned.

"Exactly." Tricky nodded "It should not be able to do anything other than cause pain to him, as he destroyed a majority of the energy, and it just looks like the remaining stardust used to make the orb embedded itself in his palm and fingers as he crushed it."

"So… He's gonna be fine?" Kurenai asked. "Because he's really good at ignoring pain, as far as I know.

"Who knows what?" Gauge asked, suddenly directly above the group. All four girls bristled in surprise at his voice.

"Rude!" Kurenai shouted

"That was kinda uncalled for, Gauge." Scarlet admonished the luxray.

"Are you always this quiet?" Tricky asked.

"Yes." Gauge replied.

All four girls sweatdropped. Amber broke the silence eventually. "Just occasionally actually hit the ground when you walk around, flyboy," she muttered, still looking at Riley's hand "I'm an eevee, and I didn't hear you coming at all."

"...Did she just call me flyboy?" Gauge asked with a frown.

"Yep," Scarlet confirmed.

"New nickname confirmed," Kurenai said.

"Dammit… No." Gauge denied flatly. The girls got a chuckle out of this.

"Well, I'll keep trying to cut off whatever's keeping him asleep." Tricky decided, putting the failed cards back into her mixed decks, shuffled them, and began to draw more cards.

Fifteen minutes later, no dice. Gauge took Kurenai, Scarlet, and Amber out of the room when a nurse came in to check on the boy. She let the sylveon be, partially because the sylveon paid her quite literally no attention at all while making various patterns with her floating cards around Riley's burnt hand.

As Gauge padded outside, he caught the attention of some trainers passing by.

"Holy shit, is that a luxray with wings!?" was the first thing he heard from the humans.

"Fuck off." Gauge reprimanded the kid, who didn't understand Gauge's language, as he was a pokemon.

"Get it!" the other shouted. Gauge prepared to give them a good electrocution, but the first one grabbed his friend by the shoulder.

"Don't. It probably belongs to somebody. It's got other pokemon in tow, the pichu has a ribbon, and they're all really clean." he said, halting his friend in his tracks. "And then, that luxray is really, really big, and his muscles are really obvious and stuff. He'd crush your pokemon in a heartbeat."

The kid had the decency to look sheepish, while Gauge thought " _Damn right. Get out of here."_

"Fair enough…" he muttered "Still, that's a sight you don't see every day. Think she has something to do with that power plant thing that was on the news, with that new team that showed up?"

Before the conversation could continue, possibly with helpful information for the pokemon, Gauge put an end to it. "I'm a guy, dammit!" he roared, and the kids scattered instantly, running for their lives.

Those two kids rounded a corner in the path, and stopped, wheezing for breath. "You had to open your big mouth about that power plant."

"Hey… I didn't know it was such a horrible experience for him."

"Fine. Let's just go. This is a human hospital. The pokecenter's a little down the road."

Back with Gauge… Kurenai was stunned while Scarlet and Amber rubbed at their ears, whining at how they couldn't hear anything.

"Uh…" Kurenai didn't know what to make of that.

"Owowow my ears!" Amber shouted.

" **What!?** " Scarlet shouted back.

Gauge looked at the two of them. Their decision to ride on his back hadn't been a very good one, obviously. 'Oh, you two are fine." he muttered as they appeared to start being able to hear again. "You won't go deaf just 'cause I roared."

"Why's it such a touchy subject to be called a girl?" Kurenai asked as Gauge padded silently in a random direction.

"Because I'm **not**." he replied, and Kurenai nodded at this obvious answer and followed.

Meanwhile, inside, Tricky sighed and put the next set of cards back into her deck and let it shuffle again. She called upon a different deck of varied cards, a deck that had effects that did not work with the other deck, hence the separation.

The cloaked sylveon began to mutter as she swiped two of the cards she chose through one of the ethereal candles, enveloping it in a translucent white and blue flame that did not damage the cards in any way. Those cards joined two others in circling, and the two others were difficult to identify by looks.

Now the nurse **was** worried because Riley began to wince. The cards around his hand summoned a mostly clear orb of energy, with power flowing into it and out of it in random locations.

The nurse stayed back, knowing that this was the sylveon who had brought him in in the first place. She was obviously trying to heal him, but she decided that if anything started going wrong, she would intervene.

Riley continued to grimace as the energy touched his burns, extracting energy from the stardust embedded into his palm within those burns. He didn't shout, but after Tricky had learned of who Riley was, that was hardly surprising.

She frowned deeper. Of course. The energy was malevolent. What was left of it that didn't fade away after he crushed the eye. It would be purposefully resisting her. But she was sure this would extract the energy with little problem.

The 'burn' started to lift from his hand, which twitched repeatedly for a while. It leached from his hand like blood from a wound in water, spreading to the edge of Tricky's magic sphere that she was building. When Tricky knew that the process was completed, she pulled the sphere away from Riley's hand, and once nothing but the energy was within the sphere, said sphere hardened into a crystal ball.

Tricky put her cards away and set the ball on the ground. She looked up from his hand to his face and now she was the one staring at him.

He shivered very slightly, and Tricky leapt off to avoid any sort of reaction as he awoke. She thanked her lucky cards seconds later as he was suddenly very much upright. Had she been in the way, it would have been a very unfortunate experience.

Riley was tense, his previously burnt hand shivering and clenching. He still wasn't yelling or anything. His eyes were very still for a bit. "Okay…" he finally muttered, "That's weird…"

both the nurse and the cloaked sylveon waited silently. Riley looked confused. He **felt** confused. His eyesight was swimming for a bit before it cleared over the course of a minute. He saw that he was in a safe place and fell back against the bed.

"We won, Riley. Nobody died." Tricky told him.

"Woo, yay, hooray," he muttered, raising a fist in the air "We won. Brilliant. How long was I out? Why does my hand hurt?"

"Because you ground some of DIzzy's eye into your palm." Tricky replied, using an odd magnifying card thing to look at it closely.

Riley's brow rose. "You have a card in those decks for everything?" he asked.

"Pretty much. You've still got a bit of stardust embedded in your hand, so you've got these outlines of burn marks that won't hurt you. The residual energy I just trapped in this sphere."

Riley took one look at the glasslike ball and pointed to it while looking at the nurse. "See that ball with the red energy?" he asked. She nodded. "Don't touch it." he commanded, and the nurse nodded once more, not thinking of anything to say to that. The boy stood up and stretched, looking over himself. "Where's my shirt?" he asked, making sure his pants were intact but not really caring one way or another about his shirt.

"Melted." Tricky told him. He winced.

"Right."

"We got you a new shirt with the same size." the nurse said, gesturing to the little closet to the side of the room. It was white, cotton, and pretty much worthless for armor, but it fit him and it looked similar enough. With a sigh, the boy walked over and threw it on.

"Well, the color is close. it looks a bit ridiculous, glad Amber isn't here at the moment, she would be **merciless** …" he muttered to himself "Alright. My traveling pants cover up the silver metal from before. And the T-shirt works just as well as an undershirt as the last one…"

"You don't need to pay for it. You just took down something that murdered that fisherman, and I believe that the cost for the meager article of clothing was covered by the police force rather than your personal account." the nurse explained, and Riley paid close attention to her words.

"Alright. That's fine," he replied after a moment of silence. "...I don't know what I'm supposed to do next."

"A girl named Yellow kept calling about your condition," the nurse told him, and his eyes widened. Riley started zipping around the room, looking in various drawers of the room.

"Phone… Where…" he muttered. He finally looked in the closet, finding his travel clothes, and pulled his phone from the pocket there. He had it on and ringing in seconds.

Tricky watched the proceedings with interest as the boy was moving around before he grabbed his phone. It wasn't exactly like running. More like walking extremely fast. It really shouldn't work like that. The sylveon started to try and discern what power the boy had.

She would ask Gauge and the other girls what else the boy could do that she hadn't seen.

Yellow picked up in seconds. "Hey," she said, sounding pretty tired "How's Riley doing?"

"Fine. He's woken up." Riley said, not bothering to disguise his voice. Yellow's yelp of surprise was audible through the phone as Riley initiated the video portion of the call.

"You do not get to wake up from a week long coma-thing and joke around immediately!" she scolded once she caught her breath.

"Are you kidding me?" Riley asked her "You realize who you're talking to, right?"

"Just shut up," she muttered "You have some nerve, getting yourself into a life-threatening situation **again**. Gods sakes, Riley! How many times have you nearly died after I left?"

Yellow's rhetorical question went unanswered. "Anyways, you want to know what happened?" Riley asked. He sounded far too calm about the situation for Yellow's tastes.

"I want you to stop getting yourself into trouble!" she exclaimed.

He sighed and sat on his bed, looking Yellow in the eyes. "Yellow, you know that I can't do that," he said calmly. Yellow noticed with a sinking heart that his eyes were half closed and tired looking. The amount of battles he had gone through…

"You could wait for backup," she tried.

"Dizzy would have taken control of them and forced them to attack me, as I was the greatest threat. I took Gauge and put the girls somewhere safe. Not only was it nearly a mistake to bring anyone, including Gauge, that malevolent gem had the ability to find things that it shouldn't be able to. The girls weren't even safe. And if I had let that monster go, if I had run away, then Dizzy would have continued a reign of terror and continued to murder innocents just to see them bleed."

Riley stopped talking when he realized that Yellow had not been properly briefed on the situation, which he figured out based on the horrified look on her face. "Everyone is all right, Yellow. It almost wasn't. All of us could have died, but we didn't."

He laughed. "Story of my life since I joined you crazy humans in the outside world."

Yellow had no idea what to say. She just stared at Riley, dumbfounded and horrified. A mind controlling bloodthirsty… Gem? …Had nearly taken her best friend from the earth. Permanently. Her hand was over her mouth. And here he was acting in a bitter manner as if it really wasn't entirely his fault this time.

"Listen up, Yellow," he said, his voice taking on a hard edge, and the girl snapped out of her thoughts for the moment. "It doesn't matter what you want me to do, or what **I** want to do. My job as someone raised in the company of pokemon is protecting pokemon, and my job as a police officer is protecting humans. There is nothing that will change that, and the fact is that I work best alone. You have to either accept that…"

His frown deepened "Or just keep the complaints to yourself."

Yellow's eyes threatened to fill with tears. Tricky noticed this.

"Riley…" she ventured "I may have to go find Angelica soon. I intended to stay until you were awake."

Riley looked away. "Uh, sure," he said. His mind quickly got onto the new topic of what would happen from this point forward. "Listen, Yellow, I don't have to go just yet. Anything new happen for you?"

His question caught her off guard. "Uh… No. Not really. Just.. Doing my job."

"Over and over and over again?" Riley asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah."

Riley grimaced. "I try to make conversation…" he muttered "Any word on Mute? I've been asleep for a while."

Yellow realized he had basically nothing else to talk about other than his rather busy and dangerous life. She too grimaced. Riley's point was made without seeming like he was trying to make one. Maybe he wasn't even trying to make it.

"Not a word. He might just be wandering out in the wilderness or something trying to find me because you tricked him. If I never see your lookalike again, it'll be too soon." Yellow replied eventually. "How's Amber and Scarlet?"

"Amber's probably going to slap me when she sees that I'm awake, and Scarlet's hopefully fine. Gauge took them outside or something, I'd wager. Kurenai was pretty freaked about the whole situation."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, well, Tricky here is still indoors with me. Apparently she's going to be off soon, but it's worth mentioning that she helped destroy Dizzy."

"You did most of the honest work…" Tricky mumbled, a response that Riley ignored. The implied " _while I was trying to kill you"_ Went unsaid, but unwarranted guilt was commonplace after a bout of mind control.

"..." Yellow said nothing for a while. "Thank you then, Tricky, for keeping this guy intact."

Tricky smiled. "You're welcome," she replied, despite knowing that Yellow couldn't understand her without being close enough to read her mind.

"Yellow…" Riley murmured "You really can't help the situation I'm in right now. I have to start hunting the organization that did what it did to the pokemon and the power plant as well. And they're getting more acting, considering the report I got from the police station in Lavender on my way out."

"...Riley…" Yellow murmured. "Please… I don't want you to get hurt…"

"It'll likely be close again," Riley replied flatly "But they will not get away with their continuing actions for long. If I die, I die. I'm not going to hold back when somebody's tormenting any pokemon. You know that, and you can't dissuade me otherwise."

The words " _Just like I couldn't dissuade you from going back to your 'job'"_ went unsaid. Yellow was thinking that this was some sort of revenge. She knew she wasn't being fair, but the boy was definitely throwing her past actions in her face in a colder manner than she would have thought the boy capable of on a regular basis. Her mouth was tightly shut as she tried to find something, **anything** to say.

"..." she said nothing, closing her eyes. Riley started looking about.

"Tricky, where's my staff?" he asked.

"Over by the door, leaning against the frame."

"Thank you~" Riley said, swiping it from its place, and twirling it between his fingers. He could have just looked for it, but he hadn't talked to Tricky enough and she would be leaving. He felt like making a point that he would make conversation with her.

"You're welcome." she replied, "Is your hand in any pain at all?"

Riley looked at his hand, frowning upon seeing the outlines of the late malevolent burns. "It's reacting a bit slow, but I can manage," Riley replied, noticing that his hand twitched a few milliseconds later than he tried to make it do so. "I can learn how to deal with that unless you can fix it."

"It would involve a lot of trial and error," Tricky said "More than it took to get that burn off you in the first place. I don't know how long it would take."

"A few milliseconds is nothing," Riley assured her.

"Wait wait wait." Yellow interrupted rapidly. "You can tell the difference in **milliseconds**?"

"Well, yeah," Riley said as if it was obvious. "You can't?"

"No, no I can't," Yellow said "I don't know any other human who can. Let's see here…"

She started thinking, doing mental calculations. "You can move at incredible speeds without having the consequences of going those speeds; you rarely skid along the ground, you're really strong, really, really strong… What else can you do?"

"Well, the other stuff pretty much falls into the strength category," Riley said dismissively "...Like ripping apart giant metal tentacles in a nightmare."

"Like ripping apart **what**?"

"Giant metal tentacles. Don't you listen?"

Yellow's eye twitched. "You make no sense."

"It'd be easier to understand if-"

"If I were there. I know. Later." she said goodbye quickly and shut down the call. Riley blinked cluelessly at the phone a few times, shrugged, and put his phone away. He turned to see both the cloaked sylveon and the nurse herself facepalming. Or facepawing in Tricky's case.

"What?" Riley asked. The two of them just shook their heads at him. He shrugged and walked out the door, intent on finding the others. Flinging the doors open, he looked left, no pokemon friends visible. Looked right, nothing. Dead on? Nada.

Riley was promptly tackled from behind by Amber, who had waited for him to emerge, her sensitive ears having caught some of the conversation from the window as the group walked alongside. As Riley fell, slightly surprised, Scarlet and Kurenai joined Amber on his back.

"You…" Amber muttered, "Are in **so** much trouble."

Riley raised his head somewhat. "Haha… Yeah, I know," he said before Amber pushed his head back into the dirt with her paw.

"you know, huh? You know about as much about staying out of trouble as you do talking to girls," she retorted "Yeah, I heard that conversation with Yellow."

"...What was wrong with that?"

 **Thump!**

"Something, apparently," Riley mumbled through the dirt. "Oh well."

He stood up with the three pokemon suddenly forced to hang off of his shoulders by their front paws. Kurenai's claws accidentally sunk into the boy's shoulders, and he flinched for a moment before picking the absol off of his shoulders and holding her in front of him by her shoulders. "Hey, Kurenai," he greeted the absol warmly. He set her down, only to get tackled over by the same absol.

"Riley…" she cried "I didn't think you were going to get better!"

"Hey." Riley tried to comfort her as she cried on him. "Hey, hey hey, it's okay. It's me, remember? I survive everything."

She buried her face in his chest. "You weren't waking up for days. Tricky was trying to heal your hand, but it wasn't working… And I was so scared. I woke up only to find you down and bleeding and burnt. I learned that I'd… I'd…"

Riley tensed. Somebody told her that she had tried to hurt them while under Dizzy's control. "No," he said sternly, bringing her head up with his hands on her cheeks. "Don't you dare," he told her "Don't. You had no control, you did not know what you were facing, and she was a **little girl**. If anything, the blame lies with me. If not me, then nobody but Dizzy herself."

Riley hugged her tightly. "Please don't blame yourself. You had no control over any of it," he pleaded.

Kurenai felt herself relaxing in the calm grip of her friend. He started scratching her behind the horn, making the tension in her shoulders go away. "It's okay," Riley whispered, "It's going to be fine."

"...Okay." Kurenai responded.

Riley let her go and got up, turning to find Gauge looming over all of them once more in that sitting position, his eyes glowing yellow. The girls shivered, having not heard him again. "Hey, Gauge." Riley greeted the winged luxray without an apparent care in the world.

"Hey." Gauge replied. "Are we set to go?"

Riley shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah," he said. But just then, his phone rang again, this time, the number identified it as Jenny. He accepted the call and put it to his ear. "Hi," he said.

"Riley? You've woken up." Jenny said, "That's great news."

"Yeah. Not so glad that my shirt's melted, but otherwise I'm good." Riley refrained from mentioning his hand.

"While that is great news… We were hoping that you could tell us what happened? We found you nearly dead with a dead girl on the ground together, the girl's eye was gouged out, and many of the pokemon were wounded in strange places that normally would not be injured in the typical battle." Jenny told him.

Riley sighed. "This is gonna take a while," he muttered, before motioning for the pokemon to be a little quieter and launched into the horror story of the day. It took twenty minutes to give Jenny all of the details, and the police chief was seriously regretting asking him for all of the details.

She shook as she heard the tale retold, wishing that a boy his age had never been subjected to such misery and torture. The poor girl, forced to be a vessel, the poor pokemon, forced to draw each other's blood in a torturous manner just for the appeasement of a malignant magical entity… And Riley had risked everything to go after her and defeat her. Officer Jenny could hardly imagine the six-year-old girl who might as well have been dead from the beginning of the match already ordering pokemon to draw each other's blood slowly…

It was horrifying. Jenny wanted to block out the image. "I'm so sorry," she told him.

"Eh, it's fine," he shrugged it off. "I'm alive, right?"

Jenny was taken aback. The kid didn't seem to be scarred in the least. She knew that if she had experienced that it might have ended her career due to its result on her mind.

"Anyways, did you have anything else I needed to know?" the boy asked.

Jenny could only sigh. "Yes," she answered "We are changing your next destination on your rounds. Normally, we would ask you to go down to Fuchsia City and make your rounds up to Celadon and then back to vermillion. However, due to recent events near the forest with 'Dizzy', as you called her, and some other oddities, I would like to ask you to turn and head through the forest to Vermilion City rather than the road. Once you go to Vermilion, please head north to Saffron and then west to Celadon. We are sending you on this route to check on the pokemon that live there, which is a job that should be less dangerous and much more to your enjoyment."

Riley smiled. "You said it. Okay. Do I just go west from the forests behind the hospital here?"

"If you don't mind bushwhacking a bit," Jenny replied blandly.

"Bush what now?" Riley asked, having never heard the term before. "Ah, never mind. Thank's!"

Jenny set down her phone before practically falling onto her desk, catching herself with her elbows. "That kid is going to give me a panic attack one of these days," she muttered, sliding her hand over to grip the pre-prepared cup of coffee.

* * *

"Matt, you are doing a wonderful job." Xerneas complimented the concentrating boy from the place where she rested off to the side. Marigold sat next to her son, having already accomplished what the boy was trying to accomplish.

"It doesn't feel like it." the boy sitting on the boulder muttered, his antlers fluctuating in size, his fur shimmering. "I'm making no progress… How is that a wonderful job?"

"It takes a larger amount of energy to transform." Xerneas supplied "Than it does to maintain it. Many of the children connected to legendaries do operate in different and strange ways, normally matching the way that the legendaries operate. In your case, your different forms should take no energy to maintain, allowing you to remain in your forms even when you are sleeping, for example."

Matt lost his concentration, his antlers returning to normal and his fur doing the same. He looked up. "Wait wait wait," he held up his hand in the multiversal 'wait' gesture. Does that mean that **you** can do the different forms thing too?"

Xerneas didn't respond, but she had two curious humans with pokemon sides looking at her. "I would prefer not to transform," she told the two of them. "While I can manipulate my own biology, I honestly would not prefer to do that."

"...Why not?" Matt asked, curious.

Xerneas sighed. "Because I am… Unbalanced. I only changed once, and I will never do that again."

"Because you have difficulty walking?" Marigold asked, finding the concept odd.

Matt, however… His mouth made an 'O' as he realized what his instructor was talking about. "Ahhh… Got it. Got it. I'm not going to pry." he said quickly. I'll just go back to… Doing what I was doing."

and he did. While his mother hadn't caught the underlined meaning, she had noticed that her boy had become uncomfortable. For him to jump back to the difficult training. A training that she had already accomplished. Her energy was lesser than her son's, as her additional form was not a legendary pokemon. It took some effort at the moment, but she could already fully change.

She had her palm on her son's shoulder as he worked towards changing himself. Meanwhile, Xerneas suddenly found the initiative to do something else with her time. muttering a few things.

Matt found that his mind was quiet. He imagined it as an infinitely deep space with everything he knew sparking throughout it. He **knew** that he was a mix between human and xerneas. He **knew** that he was the student of the fabled giver of life.

But what he knew didn't matter. What he knew had to be able to stretch, to change. That was why he could assure himself that he was a better person than he had been before. From someone who thought only his way of life could possibly be correct to someone who mentally reacted to new things in an elastic and thoughtful manner.

He had grown.

Which is why when he **knew** for a fact that he was a hybrid creature, he decided that no, he **didn't** know. No, it was not set it stone. He was a human, a xerneas, and a hybrid, as Xerneas herself had taught him. He could choose which was which, with a little effort.

deep within his own mind, he designed a simple mental command, like a switch, which would differentiate his thinking like a hybrid, and his thinking like a human. And he mentally flipped that switch.

He focused his energy into the change. Slowly, he felt his antlers sink into his head, his fur disappearing, sinking into his body. His hands and feet went back to normal, and his body reshaping itself ever so slightly. Painless. Matt was glad that it was painless.

Eventually, he felt the drain on his energy stop. He blinked a few times, before shakily looking at his hands. Human hands. Matt smiled at his success. However, he felt odd. Like this form was restricting somehow. He felt as if his original form just wasn't… **Him** any longer.

"Xerneas?" he called to the distracted legendary. "I've done it."

The pokemon turned her head, looking at the boy's human form again. "I knew you were capable," she praised the boy "Well done."

She was not surprised to hear the boy mention feeling somehow uncomfortable. "You have spent a long time in the form of a half legendary," she explained. "Your human form is a secondary form. As would be your full xerneas form. You would feel… Contained in your human form, hidden. But you would feel as though your powers are not held back enough in your full xerneas form."

Matt blinked. "My power is most stable in my hybrid form?" he asked.

"Precisely." Xerneas agreed. "The reason you feel uncomfortable is because you have done the equivalent of putting a seal on your outflowing power. With time and practice, you can learn to adapt your forms to be just as comfortable and stable as your mixed form."

"Okay." Matt accepted this more easily than either of the women in the clearing had expected. The boy was indeed growing up. He stood up and immediately stumbled on his now human feet, yelping as his mother tried to catch him with psychic power. Neither were able to stop the boy from falling.

Marigold helped her son get off of the ground, reflecting on the fact that she had no power when in this form. "I'm sorry, Matt," she apologized. He smiled at her from the ground as he accepted her hand and pulled himself up.

"It is all right, mother," he responded. "You are getting used to your abilities and forms, just as I am," he stood, dusting himself off. "What should I do now, Xerneas?" he asked.

The legendary smiled. "It depends on what you have to learn," she informed the boy "Though I would recommend getting used to walking in the woods without shoes on, all things considered. We can't have you blasting apart all of your shoes when you change between forms, can we?"

Matt conceded this point with a nod and got to walking throughout the clearing for a while.

Marigold, for her part, continued to speak with Xerneas about various things until the two humans had little else to do with their time, and Matt decided to head out for a while. Marigold quickly joined the boy, unwilling to let her son leave her sight just yet.

"Heading out, Xerneas." Matt waved a farewell to his teacher and walked out of the exit to the rest of the forest. His mother, surprised by his pace, moved to join him, her shoes providing protection against the ground, as her clothes magically reappeared when she changed, courtesy of the Guardian of Magic herself.

" _hmm… Perhaps a favor from Magic is in order in Matt's case."_ Xerneas thought. "Very well, Matt," she said outwardly. Xerneas waited until the two of them had gone before it occurred to her that they were not fully adapted to living in the wilderness at this time. Matt was in good shape, he could handle it, but as his instructor…

Xerneas picked herself up and followed the humans.

* * *

"Unacceptable!" the dark haired woman, Ember, shrieked, slamming her gloved hands onto the table, leaving scorch marks in the shapes of hand prints. "Our greatest asset, **gone**!"

The man across from her irritably ran through some calculations on his computer. "It is a setback." he admitted. "A truly unprecedented one."

"We **must** get more people," she stated firmly. "Otherwise, a single kid will tear us down! I will **not** allow us to stoop to the levels of team Rocket."

The man in charge tapped idly at his computer, remembering how team rocket had indeed been taken down by a mere child, a single pokemon trainer. They had eventually reemerged, but not nearly at the level they had been at before. "That will not happen," he said calmly.

"And how are we going to stop it?" Ember hissed.

The man looked up from the computer suddenly, meeting her eyes. Ember shuddered immediately. "We will not allow it," he answered simply. "Send Pariah southeast of Cerulean into the forest to search it for the source of the increasing energy detected there, for starters. We need to find more people to do as we want when we want."

"There is the boy, now called Mute." Ember offered. "Why don't we send him after the jackass with the staff?"

"Because the Yellow girl is still an important target. With her, battles will turn in their favor over and over due to her abilities in healing pokemon. Any battle that matters we can still lose." the man explained. "The boy Riley has only to be defeated once, and then he is out of the way forever."

Ember scowled, sitting down at the table. "Then what are you going to do?" she asked. "We could send dozens of our pawns-"

"Team members."

"Dozens of our pawns to collect potential people who could do some serious damage. All across the world there are possibilities, and let us not forget that we still need to complete our research on pokemon, and so we need a steady stream of pokemon who can't fight back. Specifically, fully grown ones in good condition. Which is why we need to find that transmutation crystal, or at the very least find an alternative."

She got a raised eyebrow in response and scowled dramatically. "We can easily brainwash powerful people. We can easily play politics. We can take over the world without much effort. Take control of the right people, manipulate events and decisions…. We can do it all! Why do we hide in the shadows!?" she demanded.

The man sipped his coffee that was next to his high tech computer. "Because I want to," he said simply, calmly. "Because I can, and because I will succeed anyways."

"It doesn't have to be that difficult!" Ember exclaimed. But she stopped instantly when the man narrowed his eyes at her, setting his coffee mug down very slowly. **Clank**. The sound of the mug striking the metal table filled the air. Ember flinched and changed gears. "We need to find alternatives to the transmutation crystal," she asserted. "There are scientists living in the world that have accomplished it, some having developed immediate and simple chemicals to do it. If we collect those people, we could regain what we have lost."

"Example?" the man asked, his voice chillingly flat.

"Carlos Varia," she started "Kalos. Secret laboratory underneath a seemingly normal convenience store. Tested his secret products with a batch of oran berries, including a drug that causes amnesia, successfully changing people into pokemon within three days."

"His disappearance would be noticed by his children. And due to the caution he takes and the security of his lab, it can and will be traced to us, adding unnecessary pressure from that entire region, making our job more difficult." the man said coldly.

"Bill. Kanto," she said, "Turned himself into a pokemon accidentally, and could easily replicate the process for us."

"He is also famous and is visited on a daily basis. Takes martial arts classes and would put up a fight that we do not need to fight."

"Rainbow Raven. Hoenn." Ember tried almost desperately. "Developed numerous and nearly instantaneous transformative chemicals and gels, surprisingly painless, alongside a multitude of delivery systems that we could gain much from controlling. Added on to her achievements are that her methods allow the transformed pokemon to speak as if they had human vocal cords, and…" Ember trailed off.

"Rainbow has extensive experience and knowledge with people who attempt to steal her work or harm her or take her." the man refuted.

"But she's on thin ice with the government." Ember pointed out. "They could be much more willing to let her go. A team of ten highly leveled operatives in the… Team members-slash-pawns division, and we can have all of her work and research. It would advance our progress dramatically!"

"You may only send five low-levels." the man replied carelessly. "They will not succeed anyhow; There is no point in trying. Every operative we send will come back as a pokemon… Or not at all. Eventually, we are going to need those people. All of them."

Ember's silk glove covered hands clenched against the table. "What do you expect me to do?" she growled, "If I can't go and replenish our supply of pokemon for research with my ideas, what ideas could you possibly have?"

Her superior looked her straight in the eye. "Send Pariah southeast of Cerulean to search the forest," he reiterated himself monotonously. Ember stared at him before growling once more and spinning, slamming the door shut behind her.

* * *

Yellow leaned against the back of her door, thinking. Her pokemon were being rejuvenated yet **again** after a battle. There was one more trainer, and then Yellow had a meeting to go to. It would take some time to do so, and so she had posted a notice this morning. Which was why she had every last challenger in the city today at her doorstep, being impatient.

She understood the purpose of the meeting of course. While the gym leaders could call each other, they needed a more reliable way to make plans concerning the state of the region and how best to protect it. And Celadon City was just the place to find closed off, yet very opportune places to have a good chat. As an aside, she understood that you must have good relations with your fellow workers in a specific job.

She sighed as she heard the machine finish rejuvenating her pokemon. The only reason she was using it was because she was getting tired from healing them over and over. Not that she was running out of energy, but that it started to grow a little uncomfortable doing it. A slight tingling behind her hands, as if her hands were falling asleep.

It was going to be a long battle, that she knew. She knew that very well. Yellow sighed, grabbed her pokeballs, and brought her friends out to the next challenger.

The girl was thankful that she caught her challenger glaring angrily at his pokemon when it missed an attack for the third time, and promptly trounced him before ranting at him about how if he treated his pokemon as a friend, and understood them, then he would be better off in the long run, before she sent him away. Omny was unscathed, so she switched him out but did not go to the back room again.

"Last challenger!" she called to the single person in the stands. She stood up and hopped over the rail of the stands, walking over to the podium. "What is your name?"

The girl stood tall. She had an unusual blue for her hair color, blue eyes, and an interesting style of blue clothing that was reasonably decent yet practically indescribable. Her sleeves seemed to be a layer above the rest of her shirt and were decorated with red lines and rings. Her pants were wide at the ankles and fluttering as she walked, decorated likewise, but her main shirt was tighter and reminded Yellow of a ninja's outfit. Just that part, however.

"My name is Kyrie," she responded simply, holding out one of her six pokeballs. "May we have our match as a six on six?"

Yellow nodded. "Certainly," she replied as formally as she could considering how tired she was mentally. Physically, she was fine, but… This was one last battle, and her friends were exclaiming their willingness to do this.

The interesting wonders of the battlefield in a gym: the floor can change. Yellow read the minds of the other woman's pokemon, before changing the field up to its default water accommodation. A plus-shaped pool of water amongst rocks and small grassy areas in the arena.

Yellow quickly opened Ratty's pokeball and sent the raticate out onto the ground. He looked confident. However, he saw Yellow's eyebrows raise as the other girl sent a sharpedo into the water though the pokemon she picked off of her belt.

The announcer once again called out that the battle must begin. Yellow was amazed that the man did not lose his voice during the past week or so. He had to shout stuff every five minutes.

Yellow didn't say a word. She didn't have to. Ratty knew what was going to be called. The sharpedo started by launching a blast of basic water at the raticate, who sidestepped it easily. Yellow frowned. Like herself, the girl was not issuing commands. Her pokemon too were trained to fight without direct command…

Yet Yellow was a pokemon mind reader. She listened into the minds of her opponent's pokemon, learning everything about the girl in the process. She was nearly twenty years old, had traveled pretty much the entire world, winning every badge she could… Had been involved in many, many pokemon rescues, either from abusive trainers or dangers in the wilderness, or unnatural forest fires and natural earthquakes.

But one thing that seemed to excite the pokemon was that it was raining outside. Not that, but that Kyrie had **made** it rain. Her eyes widened. A human with the ability to make it rain? Was that why she was dressed with Kyogre's colors?

No, that wasn't it… But her pokemon weren't thinking about it at the moment. Why were they excited that it was raining? Because they were more powerful, and faster. Yellow grimaced.

"Ratty, they'll move faster than normal!" Yellow warned, watching her pokemon's eyes widen as the raticate rolled out of the way of the next attack. And then the next. Yellow felt the surprise erupting from the other team's pokemon as the girl's eyebrows scrunched together in worry. She had seen Yellow do this a few times but evidently did not know how she did it.

But Yellow was going to let this fight end in Kyrie's victory. That was how she did things. But she was going to make it difficult.

Yellow tapped her foot a few times, alerting Ratty to her decision, and the raticate tried to form a plan of attack. He couldn't directly attack the sharpedo, not without getting taken apart. However, the pokemon had to surface to attack… Ratty could do some damage by getting him out of the water first.

He growled and shot forward when he realized that the Sharpedo would be surfacing, using his long teeth like a hook and pulled the shark pokemon straight out of the water before mercilessly attacking it with hyper fang.

Ratty flinched as he attacked, feeling the sharpedo's skin hurt him as he attacked, and the pokemon was fighting back as well. The raticate knew that he had to lose in this match, so he relented just long enough to be tossed away before the sharpedo tumbled it's way into the water. "Ow…" Ratty muttered aloud.

He noticed that the girl turned her head to look straight at him when he spoke, and thus Yellow noticed as well. But in Ratty's 'distraction', he was blasted by a hydro pump from the side and defeated.

Yellow smiled and returned her pokemon to his pokeball. "Thank you," she said quietly. She then sent Chuchu out for a fast finish. This battle needed to seem close, and she knew that the best way to do that is to bring out the powerhouse early.

Needless to say, Chuchu effortlessly knocked out the sharpedo, and then the relicanth came out soon after as a direct response. The earth began to shake as the water and rock type used an earthquake attack, and the earth type attack defeated Chuchu very quickly.

Next came Omny, who used Relicanth's dual typing to his advantage and sent the rock fish flying with a whirlpool attack, doing a normal amount of damage, slamming the pokemon into the ceiling.

Omny looked up at his opponent, who was halfway embedded in the ceiling. Relicanth was a powerful pokemon, and would not be defeated by just a few attacks. Wriggling himself free of the roof, he splashed into the water. Omny jumped in after him, and an underwater brawl ensued that neither girl could see.

But after a long and grueling battle between the rock and water types, both pokemon made it to the surface, looking weakened yet raring to go. Yellow was impressed at Omny's acting skills; he should be just fine right now.

But then, the relicanth was faking as well. They were both just fine at the moment. Their team was pretending because they had taken on so many different opponents and gym leaders, they were powerful. Very powerful.

Yellow looked at the team and realized that even at full strength, she would be presented with a challenge from this girl. She nodded at her, silently acknowledging her strengths. Kyrie nodded back. Both girls adopted more serious expressions and suddenly opened their mouths.

"Omny!" Yellow shouted "Hydro pump!"

"Ancient!" Kyrie shouted "Hydro pump!"

The water attacks clashed as the pokemon tensed and fired their strongest water type attacks. The water overflowed the arena, which Yellow realized was exactly what Kyrie wanted, but she was tossing this match anyhow. She was humoring the girl.

Kyrie knew that the gym leader was throwing the match. She had decided to after seconds of being in battle. Most impressive. The girl could instantly see her connection to her own pokemon, and Kyrie knew why. She knew that this was Yellow, the pokemon mind reader. But she also knew that Yellow was undercover in a sense. They just knew her as the Viridian Gym leader.

The water attack finally halted, both pokemon having used up more power than they were willing to during that confrontation. Saving some of it for later. But the water level had risen. Kyrie knew that Yellow knew that this put her at a severe disadvantage, and had seen it coming, but she had done it anyways.

The rest of the battle was Yellow's pokemon allowing themselves to be defeated, one by one, taking one of Kyrie's pokemon out in the process to make it seem like any of them were trying. Dody, her dodrio, suddenly surprised Kyrie when Kyrie had three pokemon left. Yellow frowned as her dodrio decided to take down Kyrie's milotic, and then her gyarados. Kyrie and Yellow alike looked at the only slightly scathed dodrio in surprise.

"I discussed it with myself." Dody's left head said.

"And I decided" her right head continued.

"That I want an actual challenge." the middle head proclaimed.

Kyrie smiled at the dodrio's challenge. "Very well." she said, releasing her greninja, Shadow, into the water.

Yellow did not know whether to stare at Dody or Kyrie. Her own pokemon looked so fired up that she had defeated two powerful pokemon. Her opponent had understood exactly what Dody had said, just… Like Riley could.

She elected to stare at Kyrie uncomprehendingly. She had thought Riley was the only one, and here was this one, a pokemon trainer of all things. She wondered what this girl's life story was. She caught the thoughts of all the pokemon, who had woken up after being defeated, and were drowsy from being beat up so badly, but they would be fine. They seemed to all think that it was in good fun. Shadow the greninja and Dody the dodrio were ready to give it their all.

"If you want to do this, Dody…" Yellow decided "I won't interfere."

"Neither will I." Kyrie agreed. "Go for it, Shadow."

The girls stepped back as their pokemon took to the stage. Yellow met Kyrie's eyes for a long period of time, and the other girl knew that she had seen her little communication trick before, and not from herself.

Kyrie's eyes narrowed slightly. Had this girl met someone like her before?

Four pairs of eyes met in the center while Yellow and Kyrie were occupied with analyzing the looks they were giving each other. Shadow's eyes narrowed as he recognized the confidence in Dody's eyes. The dodrio's heads were moving somewhat hypnotically, but Shadow could not afford to ignore them. He crouched low, preparing a katana made of water in his two hands.

Dody braced herself, knowing what would happen once the greninja vanished. She had three heads. Two of them could turn and watch other directions. The bird had a full three-sixty view.

But Shadow had not expected the azure glow that erupted from the pokemon when he did move above her to strike where her three heads were not looking. Shadow's eyes widened in silent astonishment when his water katana splashed out of existence, leaving no mark on the immobile bird who had used protect.

Dody had outsmarted the water type, and the greninja was now in no position to leap off of anything. He had trained for quick and powerful finishes, but now he was in the air. Dody's three heads whipped up at him as fast as he himself could move, and a powerful attack came into play. Fire on one beak, ice on another, electricity on a third. The dodrio slammed the tri-attack into Shadow's stomach, and the attack suddenly connected with ethereal lines as the long range attack flew from Dody's beaks and drove Shadow straight up and into the ceiling, where the attack splashed out in the three different elements before promptly exploding.

Yellow smiled, looking at the greninja as he flopped to the ground next to Dody. She was proud that Dody was not letting down her guard, but such a brutal attack at close range… The greninja was surely down.

"Greninja is unable to battle!" the announcer shouted "Dody is the winner! The victory goes to the viridian gym leader's pokemon!"

Yellow had chosen the words used when she won as well.

Kyrie looked very surprised. "Well played," she said, returning Shadow. "Your dodrio is determined at times, isn't she? When someone truly wants to win, they find a strength that they never had before."

"Both of the pokemon could have knocked each other out in one blow." Yellow pointed out. Before Kyrie could say anything else, Yellow picked a badge out of her pocket and held it out to her. "I think you know by now that victory isn't what matters in this gym."

Kyrie had known that, but she hadn't seen this eventuality. The way that Yellow's dodrio had gotten fired up had been unprecedented enough, but to lose her last three pokemon just like that, because she truly got serious… "Thank you," she decided to take the badge. She looked around the gym, noticing the water level. And the broken ceiling that had lost a chunk and was letting rain in.

"I'll get it fixed while I'm away," Yellow said as she smiled. Kyrie realized that this girl was very, very powerful when she wanted to be. She could take on most champions if she wanted, Kyrie wagered. And she seemed very confident about it.

Then why was there an… Irregularity behind her eyes?

Kyrie said her farewells to the girl and tried to leave, but Yellow stopped her. "You can talk to pokemon too," she proclaimed. It was not a question, and Kyrie turned to her without answering aloud. So, Yellow continued. "How does it work for you?"

Kyrie knew that Yellow was a mind reader, but only for pokemon. The girl was unique in that aspect. However, the girl could be trusted with an answer as a result of understanding pokemon, and so she did respond. "I hear them in my own language," she replied. "And you have seen it before."

"A good friend of mine." Yellow proclaimed. "His name is Riley."

Kyrie knew, then, that the girl could be trusted. She was not aware of this particular boy, yet, but she would in time. She knew that she would. And Kyrie also knew that Yellow understood many things that amounted to who her type of people were. So she nodded. "I would very much like to meet him someday," she proclaimed, before turning around again. "But for now, I have a challenge to face. I believe we will see each other again."

Yellow watched the girl go. She was bewildered, and definitely did not understand what the girl meant, but while Riley seemed capable of a lot of things, he couldn't cause the rain to appear. Kyrie could. So… What, then? Was Riley just out of the loop, compared to this girl? "Wait!" she exclaimed, rushing to the door and opening it, but the girl was gone. Just… Gone. How in the world was she gone!?

It wasn't just raining, it was **pouring**. It reminded her of how the news had mentioned the rain was during that crisis in Hoenn. Yellow closed the door slowly, realizing that the water on the floor had rushed out, but there was still water coming through the broken ceiling, so she sighed and left the door open a crack.

She turned to the announcer. "Go home," she ordered. "I'll be gone for a while again."

"Yes ma'am!" he gave her a salute, attempting to be amusing, and the girl laughed. The both of them were soaking wet. Perhaps that surf attack had been a bit much earlier in the fight. She walked over to Dody and patted each head once before leading the pokemon into the back room that was definitely dry compared to the main room.

She returned Dody and set the pokeballs on the healing machine once more. She was a bit tired to be healing them herself. Doubtless she could manage it, but she needed to shower and sleep. And eat. She can't forget to eat.

Sighing exhaustedly, the girl realized that she was dripping water all over her carpet and went to grab clothes to shower in.

* * *

Six purple and black spheres with buttons hung from the man's waist, embedded in the heavy duty belt he wore. Surrounded by foliage as he walked. A scowl adorned his face, which had a nasty scar curving from his chin, around his mouth, to the bottom of his eye. His hair was extremely short. His clothing resembled an outfit suited for a warlord, unnecessarily stylish.

The eye that his scar reached was gray. The other looked red though it was in actuality both were colored contact lenses. The man was clearly nothing if not image-conscious. He glared at the holographic screen hovering over the device on his forearm, which displayed energy readings. They were all over the place!

And yet there was nothing here. the man growled and turned the blasted machine off. He fingered the six unidentified pokeballs on his belt, smirking suddenly as he continued on. He strode forward once more, intending to do his job. It had good pay, after all. And it had another promise, judging by his readings.

If he could get a godlike pokemon captured, the fame and wealth and power would be beyond comparison.

He kicked aside a branch on the ground as he walked, heavy footsteps echoing through the silent forest. Why was it so quiet? The man was sure that this place was supposed to be full of wildlife. Full of things to enslave or make your own, not that he needed them.

But then he heard a rustling. He looked in the direction that the obvious noise was coming from. From experience, he knew that the creature was larger, moving at a rather slow pace, and was inexperienced with his surroundings.

The man unclipped one of the odd pokeballs from his belt, and it started to exude a shadowy aura. "Here, little legendary…" he whispered, "I don't know if that's you, but a man can dream, can't he?"

His voice was too quiet to be heard by anything, and so the boy that stumbled through the brush and surprised the man had not heard it. He looked around, uncertain, before his eyes landed on the man who stood tall, frowning at him.

Matt froze, looking at the man. Was this forest not supposed to be human-free a lot of the time?

The man was thinking the same thing, but an entirely different conclusion began to cultivate in his mind. He enlargened the ball at his side, causing the young looking boy to step back nervously. However, they were interrupted again, as Marigold stepped out of the forest up to her son, and quickly saw the imposing figure.

"...Mother?" Matt asked "Who… You don't know. Don't know why I asked."

"It's all right." Marigold assured her son, "And I am certain that-"

The woman stopped in the middle of assuring her son that the man meant no harm as she zeroed in on the sphere in the man's hand. "Matt… Back up," she said slowly.

Matt immediately obeyed, taking a few steps back. He followed his mother's eyes to the dark looking pokeball in the man's hand, trying to place it.

"I don't know who you two are…" the man said with a smirk, before tossing his pokeball in the air. It snapped open, releasing a large amount of dark energy that coalesced into a charizard. The pokemon was mostly normally colored, but its eyes were filled with hate, and each eye had a dark line straight through their pupil horizontally, almost like a poison in their eye.

As the man snatched the now empty ball from the air, he lost that smirk. "But you are going to tell me everything you know about legendary pokemon in this forest," he threatened "because otherwise, you aren't living to see tomorrow."

Matt locked eyes with the charizard. "I will obey him," he said almost robotically "I will rip you apart…"

Matt shuddered as he heard the words, realizing that the last part had been spoken with something resembling glee, though the obedience seemed to be… ingrained. Programmed in. "We haven't seen any legendary pokemon in this forest." he said truthfully, remembering that Xerneas' place was in a hidden place that likely was an entirely different and hidden forest.

"Such a shame." the man said. "Charizard!"

Before the humans could react, the draconic pokemon roared and leaped at them. They did manage to scramble out of the way before the large pokemon could slam them into the ground with his feet. The pokemon had a sadistic look in his eyes as it glared at them.

"Matthew, come here," Marigold ordered, holding her arm out. Matt knew that this was serious because his mother was using his full first name. He moved towards her as they kept an eye on the pokemon that again was standing still. "Those are dark balls on his belt." she explained to him, holding him close. "They force a pokemon into a sadistic and bloodthirsty nature by manipulating their mind and the connection between the pokemon and the ball makes the pokemon utterly obedient as well. They've been outlawed from the beginning of their invention."

"That's why…" Matt murmured. "Charizard isn't at fault here."

"If the balls are broken, then the pokemon snaps back to normal… Mostly." Marigold continued. "They never truly recover from being subjected to a dark ball. We don't have a way to break them right now. They are as tough as ultra balls."

The two family members began to step back as the man stepped forward. "Not too sporting, are you?" he asked. "This is an interrogation. You can cower, but hugging is a bit out of the loop."

Matt found himself glaring at the man. He was torturing the pokemon that he forced to stay with them. What sort of monster would do that? Even Matt himself would not have stooped that low in his old life, and in his new life, he realized how much pain those pokemon should be in.

"We have to do something," Matt muttered as quietly as he could. "He'll harm anything he comes across to make them talk whether a legendary is around or not."

His determination was evident in his voice, and Marigold did not see them being able to run without the charizard ruthlessly burning the forest down to find them. "Matt…" she murmured. "We don't know how to fight."

"Well, what choice do we have!?" Matt demanded. The two dissolved into an argument about what they should be doing while the man stood there with a blank expression on his face. He couldn't believe what was happening in front of him. instead of running away in terror, these two people were just arguing right in front of him! One would think that they have to deal with this all the time!

He stared for a while before his shock dissipated and he shouted "Charizard! Split them up!" His command jolted his slave into action as the pokemon released a burst of flame at the two, who leaped away. It registered in the man's mind that they were moving with far more agility than normal humans. His eyes narrowed.

"Take them down!" he ordered, waving his arm at the two humans, watching his pokemon stop towards Marigold first.

"Mother!" Matt exclaimed as Marigold realized that they did indeed need to defend themselves. she leapt away from the fireball that set the nearest tree alight, and after looking at the man, knowing that he would try and kill them anyways, focused on her energy and drew it outward, shifting her body into it's anthropomorphic state.

Needless to say, that wasn't what the man was thinking would happen. Confusedly, he watched the woman force the charizard away with psychic power, though it clearly took a lot of effort for her. The man chuckled suddenly, a dark chuckle, as he removed an empty dark ball from his pouch.

"I don't know who you might be, or **what** you might be, but you're clearly a pokemon, and I, Pariah, can't just let this opportunity go to waste," Pariah stated, holding the ball up.

Marigold felt a large amount of pressure meet her mind as she tried to hold the charizard down. Soon, she would lose her grip. Locking eyes with Matt, she mentally asked him to do something before they were both in danger again.

The man threw the ball at Matt's mother, and the boy, despite not knowing whether the ball would work, quickly jumped in to intercept. He grabbed the ball out of the air, stopping to look at it for a moment before he dropped it and ran at the man, intent on stopping him from threatening them. Unfortunately, he was inexperienced in battle. Completely so. Thus, when the man smacked him aside with something resembling **total ease** , the boy slid to a stop on the ground.

His mother couldn't take the pressure any longer and collapsed, holding her head in her hands. This allowed the charizard to stand and rush up to her, knocking the woman over and planting his large foot on top of her to hold her down. A sadistic grin reached the fire type's face as he prepared to burn Marigold alive.

" **No!** "

* * *

Riley darted on the branches of the trees, hopping from one branch to another at a quick pace. Scarlet and Amber were with him while Kurenai was running beneath them. She was getting better at running for extended periods of time though Riley was going at a slow pace for her. The boy glanced up to see Gauge coasting in the air above him.

The absol was panting, tired, but she kept telling him to keep going, and that if she needed a rest, she would tell him. Riley was glad that the absol was interested in getting stronger, as a lot of dangerous things seemed to be happening around here nowadays. And as Tricky had told the boy that she would be going at her own pace, the sylveon was likely far behind them, walking at a slow pace. Not that the boy blamed her. If she was searching for someone in particular, she would have to pay attention when she went places.

So the boy had shrugged and said goodbye to the sylveon and invited the others to run, a proposal that they were happy to comply with. That is, after Amber smacked Riley enough times that he remembered to thank the sylveon for healing him before they left. Even Gauge, the only other male in the group, realized how dense the boy was around girls, and **Gauge** was the one without any memory of what happened before he was being experimented on!

Gauge flapped his wings again, getting a decent view of the forest below. Most of it was enshrouded in the treetops, though Riley's scorchingly bright orange hair was clear as day, as the boy was halfway through those treetops.

The boy did not rest for quite some time. He knew that he should probably stop, or something. However, Kurenai would be the first to tire, and he knew that. It was she who would call for a break.

And eventually, the absol did. Riley quickly disappeared from Gauge's line of sight as the boy caught a branch with his hand, spun, and slammed into the ground right in front of the girl. Kurenai skidded to a halt, panting, but happy with the exercise. She was happy that she was getting better, and faster.

"Good job." Riley praised the girl, rubbing her head before he stood up and looked around. Something felt wrong here. The forest was way too quiet. He listened intently, trying to surpass his human level hearing (to no avail, as he wasn't **that** good at breaking the usual human rules), and learn what everything ran away from.

"I don't hear anything." Gauge muttered, having somehow silently gotten through the dense foliage and landed without a single noise. Even Riley blinked at his silent entrance. How the winged cat managed that, none of them had any idea.

He shushed the chattering pokemon and walked along slowly. They followed at a slow pace, as Riley was suddenly sneaking forward. " _Why has everything run away?"_ Riley asked in his mind. He came up to a large tree and looked around it to find a peculiar sight.

He did not recognize the glowing deer-like pokemon that was walking slowly through the forest. Xerneas was currently very worried about the silence abounds as well, though she had not sensed the boy watching her just yet.

That was when both heard the ruckus. Crashing and the sound of flames erupting reached their ears, and They immediately acted, rushing forward. Riley moved forward at intense speeds, easily outpacing Xerneas and moving towards the noise.

Xerneas, however, was listening to her forest. Hearing it's pain, as she knew it was burning somewhere. Life called out to her. Not the guardian, but the force. Which technically was the same thing, And she felt Matt's large amount of life energy. She could **see** him and his mother in danger, and she **felt** the corruption surrounding the life force above Matt's mother.

" **NO!** " she shouted, generating a pink sphere between her antlers which quickly grew into a beam that launched through the air. Her moonblast roared into the distance, through the trees, to the not yet visible target in the distance.

Riley saw the blast sail by him, as well as the very loud scream that preceded it, his eyes widening at the show of power. Kurenai had fallen behind, but she would be safe with the pokemon that Riley figured was a legendary. Considering the power of that blast…

Amber and Scarlet braced themselves as Gauge started to dive, seeing the fire. Riley suddenly blurred, the pokemon on his shoulder getting that rushing feeling as everything blurred passed them and flew through the trees to find…

He stopped for a moment. He knew that boy. That was Matt, and he looked frightened as hell. There was what looked like a gardevoir, but with a human-like body type for the most part and a shirt on. She was gasping for breath. Riley had no idea what he was looking at, but it was clearly some… Alternative type of gardevoir or something.

Matt had tumbled aside to avoid the charizard, who had been blasted into the tree opposite the slightly open area. It looked hurt, though thankfully not dead. Riley could see the dark lines through its eyes, knowing instantly that something was wrong with it.

And finally, the man in the flamboyant clothing ordering the charizard to get up and kill the 'freak', as he called the downed gardevoir hybrid-looking being, immediately. The pokeballs on his belt were the same black that was in the charizard's eyes, and Riley knew that this man was doing something to control the fire type.

"Sigilyph!" the man exclaimed, releasing another pokemon in a flash of dark energy from his pokeball. It was very oddly shaped, and it's eyes were all adorned with that dangerous seeming black slit through the center of each. It fluttered, making odd, threatening noises, under the influence of the dark ball. "Find what made that blast and bring it here!"

The pokemon began to soar off in Riley's general direction, and that wasn't going to slide by the boy. Riley set his passengers on the thick branch he stood on and whispered: "If you want to help, fine. but **only** if you aren't getting in danger in the process."

"Sure," Amber responded as Scarlet nodded. They understood how serious this was, and Riley refused to put them in the line of fire. So the boy jumped up and out, in a spread-eagle dived out and down before landing straight in front of the psychic type.

Needless to say, Matt, Marigold, Pariah, and basically everyone other than Riley's group had seen that appearance coming. A host of people gaped at him though Riley noted with a rather

"Pathetic human!" Sigilyph angrily exclaimed, "Get out of my way!"

The psychic-flying type tried to get past the boy, only to find its main body slammed by the heavy end of RIley's quarterstaff, which sent the pokemon reeling. It would obey what its master commanded, and so it tried to fly past the boy again, only to be struck again.

"Stay down," Riley said, stepping forward. He stared Pariah directly in the eyes. "I don't know who you are, but you have done something horrible to these pokemon." he proclaimed. "As such, it's within my self-proclaimed authority to beat the living shit out of you."

Pariah sneered. "The kid that everybody's up in a fuss about," he unclipped the remainder of the pokeballs from his belt. "You're not my target, but you'll sure get me a bonus."

"I doubt anybody could do more damage to me than that Dizzy girl." Riley shrugged. He casually knocked the enraged sigilyph back again. "And frankly, her control at least shut the pokemon down, and they couldn't feel anything while under it. You seem to be forcing them to be angry, and I haven't seen your rather angry pokemon go so far as to try any other sort of strategy in getting past me."

Pariah was furious. "Do you know who you're talking to, boy!?" he exclaimed. "I am Pariah! Dark Master of pokemon! I do what I want! And what I want right now is to waste you. Considering you're not wanted alive, at all, I don't have any trouble doing **This**!"

he tossed the rest of the dark balls in the air, releasing a host of pokemon. A poliwrath, a magnezone, a gigalith, and an absol. Riley tensed. All of the pokemon he had gave off this powerful aura and his eyes widened slightly upon seeing the absol. It looked kind of familiar though he was sure it wasn't this absol he had seen…

All of the pokemon's eyes were filled with hate and bloodlust, with that dark line effect through their eyes. Riley growled deep within his throat, a growl that had Marigold and Matt pausing as they got up from their respective places. That didn't sound like it was very nice. Pariah ordered his sigilyph to stop and wait so that they were all right there. Waiting for their orders. Every single set of eyes told Riley that they wanted nothing more or less than to tear him apart.

"So you're just going to hide behind a bunch of victimized pokemon, are you?" Riley asked, his voice promising utter destruction.

Matt ran over during the distraction and helped his mother from the ground. Right in full view of Riley, she changed herself back and felt her headache start to go away. Apparently, it was a psychic type issue. "I'm fine, Matt." she assured her son, who nodded and turned to face the others.

That was when Xerneas and Kurenai galloped into the area, stopping cold at the sight. It was suddenly very crowded in the area. Amber and Scarlet were on the tree branches, Xerneas and Kurenai were near Matt and Marigold, Pariah was surrounded by very large pokemon. Gauge landed on the ground next to Riley. The fires had gone out, but if a battle broke out, the forest would be damaged. Heavily.

Xerneas was seeing that the two people living with her were all right. She sighed with relief and then focused her attention on the man. His pokemon were infected by the result of the dark balls at the man's waist. She could see that clearly, and as she consistently spoke with other legendary pokemon, she knew what they were from Celebi. Her gaze became a glare, and she began exuding her legendary aura. This man must realize that he was in danger.

Matt was considering joining the fray, and transforming, but he knew that he did not have any offensive skills to speak of. He flinched and turned to look at the others, recognizing his first pokemon, Kurenai, and his eyes widened when he saw a **winged luxray** beside the boy who had freed Kurenai. That was certainly not normal.

Riley was confident. He could easily handle several of the pokemon at once, and he had a legendary and Gauge on his side. Not only that, but Scarlet was indeed a pro and blowing things up if need be, even if her paws got a bit burnt. She would simply have to be sparing with her attacks. The boy turned to look at everyone, not knowing what Matt was doing here of all places but not really caring too much. As long as the guy wasn't going to try and get involved. He hadn't identified the legendary yet, but she was capable of blowing things up, so that was all good.

And Kurenai… Riley frowned. She was staring in utter shock, as still as she had been when Dizzy was controlling her. Riley followed her gaze to the other absol, who was meeting her eyes with utter hate in his own, under the influence of the dark balls. And Riley's eyes widened as his mind clicked and made the connection, why the absol was so familiar and yet not so…

Kurenai's question rang through the now silent forest. "B-Brother!?"

* * *

 **Raise your hand if you saw that finishing line coming. Okay, Now... Put them all down. Because unless you're one of the very few people who know about this because I talk to them regularly, you're most likely lying. Now that that's out of the way, it's time to cite some sources.**

 **Or rather, one source. RaiinbowRaven. That username I just posted is a DeviantArt name. Her main comic series includes a mad scientist character named, wait for it, Rainbow Raven. As I read of the character, I looked at what I was having Ember talk to her superior about and realized it would be a perfect reference moment. So I referenced her. And I cited the source above. And I'm tired.**

 **Goodness, I need some sleep. Anyways, I'm going to close this off here. I could blather on about what happened in the chapter, but... Not tonight. Tonight, I sleep. Good day/Night, everyone. Thank you for reading. Leave a review. Thank you again.**

 **Amber: Hyper, where are you going? Oh. To bed. Okay. Well, I managed to get Frost free. Finally... The guy was so badly tangled up... I need to find Jango. Where is that yellow-eyed bugger hiding now? Fine. I need to get out of here too. Good night.**


	18. Chapter Eighteen: The Shadows

**First things first is apologies. I just found out I had answered TAC2 reviews to start off the chapter... of New Age. Bad. Bad Hyperjade. Very bad.**

 **Uh... Let's get into the actual reviews this time and forget the mix-up. Sorry to any who have read the chapter so far today and got the wrong reviews answered.**

 **To Westernfail: No, Riley can't really catch a break. It's unfortunate, but he has been tossed into this big mess here in the world of New Age, and now that he's gotten involved, it's hard to escape. Kyrie's connection isn't too hard to figure out, no. And I am glad I was able to surprise you with Kurenai's brother showing up. And I was glad to be able to include him.**

 **To What Lies Beyond: (I am as a matter of fact using this format of review answering to save time in fixing this chapter) I meant for every reader to draw that conclusion about Kyrie immediately. I am glad I got that message across. Yes, if it seems important, it is PROBABLY something you should keep in mind as you continue to read the story. Sorry Frost got trapped in Jango's trap.**

 **To Twisted Moonlight: I am glad to see that you are making analytical attempts to understand what is happening before the reveals. It is so much more satisfying for me to see readers attempting to solve mysteries before they get to chapters that explain.**

 **To Phillip Harbindinger: Then get some sleep. Oh, and thank you.**

 **To the story!**

* * *

 **Chapter Eighteen: The Shadows**

Silence.

Everyone stopped talking instantly. The man had his arm out in front of him, reading something from a holographic screen hovering above it. That screen was translating Kurenai's words. Not perfectly, but he had gotten it.

The growling pokemon under the effects of the dark ball quieted as well. It was clear that even when forcibly turned dangerous, they still had a living element to them. The absol in question turned his undying glare, marred by those dark lines through his pupils, on Kurenai.

Matt and Marigold stopped cold, horror on their faces, realizing why the absol in front of them looked so familiar to them. Marigold realized that she had even **seen** this absol before her husband took it away and anonymously sold it to undisclosed recipients… She supposed she now knew why they were undisclosed. Her heart twisted at the sight of the nick in the blade of the absol's horn. Matt felt a crushing weight on him as he felt flashbacks of what he knew his father and he himself had done to Kurenai and couldn't let it go this time. He knew he had changed, he wanted to have changed. And these memories were painful enough to prove it.

Xerneas was the calmest about the situation, observing the similarities between the two. A deep sadness emerged within her, eating away as she thought about how these children must have been separated while they were young, but they must have been old enough to know each other and recognize each other. And now the brother's hateful glare was fixated on his sister. Perhaps he recognized her. Perhaps not. It wouldn't matter. The absol would tear into his sister without hesitation if he was let loose. At the moment, he had been ordered by his trainer to stay, and pokemon affected by dark balls are obedient.

Riley was frozen in pure shock. Kurenai had never mentioned having a brother, and now… Here was an absol looking very much like her, and he was being forced to be cruel and destructive by that man… Riley got over his shock and gave a pointed glare at the Pariah man. He would suffer for this, Riley vowed.

Scarlet and Amber stared at Kurenai, completely incapable of speech. Both of their jaws hung open, as they nearly completely forgot about the threats in front of them. The absol had completely short-circuited their thought process.

Kurenai… Could not begin to understand what was happening. She stared blankly into that horrid glare. She blinked freely, unconsciously. She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing at first. Her… Brother? The person who had cared for and protected her for years until he had been torn away from her without any warning, sold off to some random person?

Her dear brother, who had saved her from danger multiple times, and had disappeared just before she was dragged on a trip to the beach and nearly drowned without her brother to keep her safe like she was so used to. Now his eyes had dark lines straight through the pupil, a dark mark that even if he was freed he would keep for the rest of his life. Showing the world that he had once probably killed things in cold blood, beyond his control. A murderer, and yet not. A criminal, and yet… Not.

She was certain that she would never see him again. She **knew** that he was gone forever, and just by chance, she got to see him again… But he was a monster. A slave to his master, with an undying rage and hatred filling his mind. She felt the danger surrounding him. Her horn was going crazy with the amount of danger she was feeling from all of that group. They, her brother included, wouldn't hesitate to tear her to bloody pieces if their trainer commanded it.

Her thoughts were cut off. " **Piece of filth…** " her own brother snarled, before looking at his trainer. " **Let me rip her apart**!"

She shuddered as the man chuckled. "Always the most eager one," he said. "Fine. Absol…"

" _That's not his name…"_ Kurenai thought blankly, locking eyes on her brother.

"Take her down if you want."

Kurenai watched her brother leap forward with a snarl **immediately** , claws raised. She didn't move. She didn't want to move. Why would she?

Riley stepped in front of her and caught his staff on Kurenai's brother's horn, spinning him a few times with an expert twirl and tossing the now dizzy absol back. The calm effectiveness in Riley's intervention had everyone blinking in surprise.

"That will not happen," Riley growled. "May I reiterate, Pariah, what Kurenai's brother said, and say it in regards to you? No? Okay then. **Piece of filth**."

Pariah was unsurprised by the boy's dark tone and was further unsurprised by the boy's ability to toss his absol a great distance. However, he was surprised by the mention of 'Kurenai's brother'. Meaning that this was going to be extra painful for the boy when his group inevitably lost. He gave a smirk and waved his arm. Kurenai's brother immediately jumped back into the fight, attacking Riley now.

The boy blocked and knocked aside every strike so easily it was downright embarrassing. Pariah watched with relative surprise as he witnessed the boy seemingly not even paying attention to the enraged absol.

"When someone only has rage behind them, they have power, but not versatility." Riley reminded the man. "I want to take your damn head off, but I know that you've got some trick that'll probably nearly kill me and force me to have an obscene amount of luck and barely win and nearly die in the process. So I'm not playing that game. I know those ball things can be broken, so I'm gonna break them and free these poor pokemon."

Riley then slid his staff into its makeshift sheath and grabbed the aggressive absol around the chest, holding him so that he couldn't hurt him. This further surprised Pariah learned from this that the boy was very strong, stronger than anticipated, to hold an absol captive with little effort. "If only I'd used this position to get Kurenai in the bath…" Riley muttered.

He was acting. Xerneas and Marigold could see it. He was ready to kill the man in front of him for the torment these pokemon were going through. They saw the way he clenched his staff. However, he had fooled the man threatening them.

Xerneas paid attention to the other pokemon. They would fight until they couldn't fight any longer. Xerneas was aware of her limits. She, like all pokemon, could be defeated. Her healing factor was impressive, considering that she was the giver of life, but…

She focused her attention on the other pokemon, recognizing his diverse team. Poliwrath. Charizard. Gigalith. Absol. Sigilyph. Magnezone. Water, fighting, fire, flying, dark, rock, psychic, steel, electric. Powerful pokemon, and diverse. They would be very dangerous to fight once the man ordered them to go all out.

"We can't just stand here forever." Pariah decided with a smirk. "Take Xerneas down right now!" he produced an empty dark ball from behind him. Xerneas stiffened. If she got caught in that… She would never be able to live with the consequences after she was inevitably freed.

Matt stepped in front of her defensively.

"Matt, stay back," Xerneas warned calmly. "You are not prepared for combat at this level."

"I have to try." he whispered in return.

"Matt, please." Xerneas pleaded with the boy, but she watched him revert to his half xerneas form in defiance again, taking a sloppy but somewhat accurate defensive fighting stance. Then she noticed Riley getting completely distracted by the transformation as the absol in his arms managed to slice at Riley's cheek with his horn.

Riley ignored the pain and stared at Matt. " _Well, that was the last thing I ever expected_ _ **.**_ " came to mind when he tried to explain that. Does not compute. PokeMatt? He blinked a few times, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, but then…

" _Ooohhh…"_ Riley looked between Xerneas and Matt. "Nice, Xerneas. Dunno what he had to do for you to do that to him."

"It was no punishment." Xerneas corrected the red haired boy's tone. "it was a gift."

Riley's eyebrows rose, but he tossed the absol away and readied his staff. "This ends today," he warned Pariah. He would ask about that later. It all looked very strange and confusing. What worried him was that Kurenai hadn't even noticed and was still staring at Pariah or her brother.

Riley took a step forward, sidestepping the wild swipe made by Kurenai's brother. He could avoid the absol all day.

"Attack!" Pariah ordered out of the blue, tired of the aimless silence. All of his pokemon instantly raced towards random targets, intent on killing. The poliwrath and the charizard approached Matt, Marigold, and Xerneas. The gigalith approached Riley slowly while the absol broke away from Riley to charge Gauge. The sigilyph had Riley in its sights until it received a small blast from Scarlet, whose paws were not smoking.

Scarlet winced, rubbing her paws together. That small blast had done a lot of damage, but it **hurt** to fire plasma beams from her paws. And now the scary weird psychic thing had her in its sights and she saw the magnezone approaching Amber of all people.

Amber backed away from the magnezone, not daring to evolve so quickly. One, she didn't know if she could easily do it again, and two, it took a ton of energy and she would pass out soon enough from it.

Then the magnezone stopped and groaned out an angry mutter as Amber backed away. It seemed to be struggling, and Amber took the moment to run off and check for the source of the power. It was the odd human/gardevoir person that she had seen before, so she darted over to be next to her.

Scarlet skipped aside as the sigilyph charged past her. Its movements were quick but poorly aimed and anger-fueled. She didn't want to blast it unless she had to because there was an innocent pokemon underneath that darkness. She feared that she could seriously injure the pokemon with the plasma attacks, so she held off and kept running.

Riley, for his part, faced the large gigalith. The massive rock type loomed over him, it's presence almost emitting a sort of pressure into the air from its simple presence. The rock type brought one of its huge legs up and started to bring it down.

Riley sidestepped. He simply stepped aside, as the stone leg pulverized the earth where he had been standing. Riley then jumped onto the leg and then onto the gigalith's head, looking down at the enraged pokemon unhappily.

Then Pariah realized that the boy no longer had anything between himself and his opponent. "To me!" he exclaimed, and his pokemon retreated from where they had been losing rather spectacularly and surrounded him again. Pariah had to match up his pokemon to his opponents.

"Poliwrath, distract the boy," he ordered calmly, pointing out the orange haired teenager. His fighting type immediately moved to obey, uttering curses and threats at Riley as he approached. "Absol, kill the other absol there that recognized you. The rest of you, take apart any opposition between you and Xerneas," he grinned "Just don't kill Xerneas. Near death is fine."

"No." Matt protested, taking his defensive stance again. His mother too took a stance at his side. Xerneas marveled at the two. Previously humans, they were already perfectly willing to try and throw their lives away to help her. Not that Xerneas would allow it.

However aware that Xerneas was that she could not win alone. The pokemon in front of her were extremely powerful at this point, ordered through training like hateful puppets.

"...Maybe I could heal that darkness?" Matt asked uncertainly as they approached in unison.

"No," Marigold informed her son. "The dark ball uses encryption to capture a pokemon. A method banned in favor of shrinking them down because encoding often resulted in failure if the ball was damaged, creating horrific results. The dark ball was a more developed version of this. It causes no messy mistakes, but it purposefully damages the mind of the pokemon."

"W-what does that mean?" Matt asked, shifting worriedly.

"It means that their brains are entirely devoid of any capacity for emotion other than hatred and anger. Physically removed from them. The process is reversed once the ball is broken… Mostly. There is permanent damage and the pokemon may fly into a rage from time to time."

"As your mother suspects, healing the brain is an extremely complicated and even more risky process," Xerneas added. "It could very easily kill them to try and heal them."

"Then what do we do!?"

"We break the dark balls. We must make certain that none of his pokemon are going to be able to jump in the way, as they have obviously been ordered to." Marigold explained. "It will be very difficult as dark balls are built to be stronger than ultra balls. I do not see any other way."

"Se we must scamper around these poor pokemon and find a way to Pariah. The pokemon are obedient. That too was obviously programmed into the dark ball. Free will is removed, or at least restricted." Xerneas decided.

The sigilyph charged a psybeam in their direction, the first in range.

Riley looked at the poliwrath, and then at Kurenai's brother. The poliwrath would attack him and him only until he received yet another order. But he noticed that Kurenai hadn't moved a single inch. She was still staring at Pariah blankly. Defeated. Just the sight of her brother, subjected to this horrible fate had defeated her.

Riley ducked around the poliwrath's first charge and looked back. "Please don't give up!" he called to Kurenai.

Kurenai heard him but did not acknowledge. Her eyes now trained on her brother's red and black eyes.

"Please, Kurenai! You have to run!"

"...Why?" Kurenai asked. "I always hoped that he would be safe and sound somewhere, that a kind family had adopted him, or something. And now look," she nodded weakly towards the absol stepping towards her one paw at a time, snarling. "He's completely gone."

Riley was forced to jump away from Poliwrath again, his eyes widening. The water type was getting faster, which was unfortunate and unprecedented. He started to move towards Kurenai, but then… He was blocked. The poliwrath saw a hand sign of a command from his master, and got between the boy and Kurenai, arms out. He would block any attempt to get to her, and the other absol was right there!

" _No!"_ Riley exclaimed, slamming his staff against the poliwrath and vaulting over him, only to see the absol's shadow claw come down on Kurenai. Riley feared for the safety of the girl… Why didn't she get out of the way!?

 **CLANG!**

 **Zzzzzz…**

A violent sizzling sound filled the air. Riley faltered in his strike and fell back after landing, eyes wide. Scarlet had been prepared to blast the other absol but had hesitated because she didn't want to kill Kurenai's brother. Amber blinked in confusion at what she was seeing, having trouble comprehending it.

Hate filled eyes met strong, determined ones. The shadow claw attacks hissed as they fought to overcome one another. Kurenai stood still, her left law outstretched, a shadow claw violently twisting and hissing as it fought against the other attack. Other than that hissing, silence filled the air for that group, even as Xerneas and Matt and Marigold fought.

Kurenai stared her brother straight in the eyes, unwilling to look away. " **No,** " she said darkly. " **I won't just die**."

Her voice lightened somewhat. "Kazekai… I am going to help you," she told her brother. "And I can't… Do that if you kill me."

Her decision rang in Riley's ears. He blinked. Kurenai, who had seemed so… Helpless all the time. Kind and young and needing assistance with everything. A traveling companion, not a fighter. Now she was going to fight? And how was she holding her brother, Kazekai, back?

"...Impossible!" Pariah exclaimed. "My absol has been put through six years of constant training! It's the strongest absol in the region! I was assured of this!"

Kurenai remembered her old 'home', in which a whip was considered acceptable, back to the methods used to try and break her and turn her into an obedient fighting machine. She was peaceful because she was **strong** mentally. But that was not why her claws could push back her brother's. The methods used to break her had obvious other effects. She looked up into Kazekai's eyes, hateful eyes with permanent dark slits through the pupils…

"I had **twelve**."

Kurenai drew back her claws and threw her brother clear across the clearing, Kazekai roaring as he was thrown clear and crashed into the dirt. The female absol disengaged her shadow claws and sat down on the ground.

Gauge noticed the poliwrath about to punch the living daylights out of Riley, who was so stunned that he failed to pay attention. Rather than focusing on how Kurenai had done what she had done, he defeated the angry pokemon immediately using a lightning bolt. The raw energy caused the water type to collapse in a heap behind Riley.

Pariah stood stunned once again. The luxray had been so quiet and immobile that the man had completely forgotten about her existence. "How in the hell…" he muttered. His sigilyph abandoned the battle at his mental command to guard him now. But now the other side was a losing battle for him. Xerneas was going to escape his grasp!

But he knew that he would lose all that he had right here if he did not achieve what he was intending to. He had entirely underestimated his opponents. He did not know why he was ordered to come here in the first place.

A growl erupted from his throat. "Absol! Kill her" he pointed at Kurenai angrily. "Sigilyph, keep that boy away from me until I can come up with something."

Kazekai charged Kurenai without hesitation, and Sigilyph created a safeguard around the man and itself. Riley frowned and tapped his staff against the rippling bubble shield of safeguard, and the psychic energy started getting pulled into his staff, forcing the psychic type to continue using power to do that with.

"I wouldn't do that." Pariah interrupted Riley "Sigilyph will waste it's life away sustaining that shield."

Riley growled and put his staff away, although he sustained the safeguard energy glowing in his staff. He turned to check on Kurenai, who was sitting still as Kazekai prowled in circles around her. Riley only intended to stop this fight if Kurenai couldn't handle it. But something deep within him told him that Kurenai would be just fine.

With Pariah hiding behind a safeguard like a coward, and Kurenai's normal expression that could be described as peaceful or emotional, one of the two normally, turned into something very much unlike her. Kazekai charged her from behind.

* * *

Matt couldn't take his eyes off of the charizard. It had attacked him… And his mother. He had power in him. He had to learn how to use it. Right now. Fairy type energy began building in his chest as he tried to draw it forth. He could **feel** it. It roared beneath his skin and fur, erupting from his antlers, waiting to be released. It was not life energy. Life energy was calm and smooth. Fairy type energy was a violent, dragon-hating force with a volatile side. It could cause huge explosions, and even dragons feared it.

He opened his mouth and tried to release the energy. It must have been done incorrectly because he was blasted back by the force that knocked the Charizard back. All things considered, Charizard had fared better than Matt that time. " _Remember, Matt. The knockback is very real."_ He chided himself and stood back up in time to leap away from the flamethrower that cooked the area he had been in moments before.

Marigold distracted the magnezone, knowing that the steel type techniques it clearly knew would wreak havoc on both Xerneas and her son, and would not allow that. Her eyes glowed with raw power as she forced the magnezone to keep attacking her rather than the others, and elegantly sidestepped the flash cannons and charge beams that zipped by her. It surprised her that she was a good fighter. She had taken some classes, but not nearly enough to be this good at dodging. She wondered if perhaps her transformation into a psychic type had increased her ability to learn quickly.

Xerneas, for her part, held the gigalith at bay. The massive rock type towered over everyone else, including her. It's body glowed, and rings of stones would emerge and fly at Xerneas, who elegantly skipped out of the way of each stone edge attack. Admitting to herself that she could not directly harm the hard-as-steel rock type without extensive effort, she resorted to stalling and firing random blasts at the charizard to keep Matt alive. The boy had attempted a combat roll to avoid an attack and was thrown violently to the ground by his horns.

" _Perhaps I should have gone into combat lessons."_ Xerneas reflected.

The rock type attempted to squash her with its leg. She leaped back and hit it with a quick moonblast, the sphere of fairy type energy detonating against the rock type's skin but leaving very little damage in its wake. Xerneas' heart sank at the sight. This pokemon's power was intense. It alone might be able to defeat her if it was fast enough. She could only be glad it did not hold the slightest candle to her speed.

The three were holding their own rather easily, honestly. That was when the gigalith roared, calling its teammates, and the Charizard joined the fight with Matt on its tail. "Get back here!" Matt exclaimed, "I won't let you hurt-"

Charizard looked back at Matt and slammed his tail into the xerneas hybrid. Matt choked as he was thrown clear of the entire clearing and slammed back first into a tree, before he fell onto his chest, down for the count.

"Matt!" Marigold shrieked as she buried the magnezone into the dirt with a powerful attack. She turned hateful eyes on the charizard and waved her arm in a slicing motion, releasing a psycho cut in his direction. Not bothering to dodge, the charizard received a nasty wound on its chest that began bleeding, but he did not stop. He roared and charged Xerneas, making the legendary leap away after realizing that her moonblast might cause more damage than she intended to cause, and could seriously wound the pokemon.

"Watch it, Marigold!" Xerneas suddenly ordered, seeing the event triggering but unable to do anything about it. Marigold, focused on the charizard, was slammed in the side by Gigalith's leg, and sent flying with a scream. She tumbled to a stop on the ground, unconscious immediately.

The power these pokemon showed far outclassed the magnezone, sigilyph, absol or even poliwrath. They were monstrously powerful. Xerneas began to back away as she was approached by the three opponents, realizing that she could not hope to defeat them alone. She was going to lose.

The enraged pokemon charged.

* * *

Kazekai came one inch from driving his claws into Kurenai's neck from behind when she acted. As if everything went into slow motion, she lowered her head and made Kazekai's strike go over his sister, and as the absol was above her, she twisted in a tight space and planted her forepaws on the ground behind where she had been facing before, delivering a massive horse kick to her brother's stomach, careful not to hurt him too badly.

Kazekai went sailing through the air again, crashing into a tree. Kurenai winced. That was not intended to happen.

" _Is… She some sort of ninja? I didn't see what she did there, and I'm a luxray!"_ Gauge thought to himself.

" _That was so quick I almost didn't track it."_ Riley thought, And he only was able to see it at all because he slowed things down in his perception.

Kurenai turned back to her brother as she drew a line in the dirt with her claws. "I won't let you hurt me, brother," She told him. "And I won't hurt you… Worse than I have to."

Kazekai roared and charged, not heeding his sister's calm words. Kurenai planted her paw onto Kazekai's leg as he approached, pushing his leg aside and upwards, twisting it. The absol was suddenly upside down and moving forward still, so Kurenai threw herself onto her back and then delivered four kicks, one with each leg, to Kazekai's body before letting him tumble to the ground behind her before she stood up again. The strikes would leave the absol aching, but otherwise, nothing more severe.

" **I… I will kill you!** " He promised, standing. " **You will die!** " He ran forward recklessly. This time, Kurenai simply hopped in the air and pushed Kazekai's head to the ground, using enough force to make him tumble in a forward roll for a couple of meters.

"I still love my brother," Kurenai said. "It would be rude of me to drop you just because of something you cannot control."

Kazekai growled and tried to slash at her face with shadow claws, only to be blocked once again. However, Kurenai blocked the attack by using her leg to stop Kazekai's leg, not blade to blade. This meant they were very close to each other.

Kazekai tried to bite her. Kurenai reared up onto her hind paws and pushed his face away towards his own leg. He struggled, but after he swung his other foreleg, Kurenai spun the paw holding his face and caught his other foreleg against his face too. In that position, Kazekai could do no more until he backed off.

"Listen," Kurenai told him as she sidestepped his crushing stomp towards the top of her head. "There isn't any-" she ducked a shadow claw over her head "-way you can hurt me. You hate me. You want me to die a bloody death, but that's only because you don't have any other choice."

Her words fell on deaf ears as Kazekai continued to attack her relentlessly, breathing hard. Claws flashed, jaws snapped, other bladed appendages were swung. Kazekai's horn slammed into Kurenai's claws again, and Kurenai used the leverage to easily flip her brother over onto his back. "You may be older than I am…" Kurenai told him, sitting down. "By three years, even, but that doesn't mean you have to be stronger."

Riley saw that Xerneas was in trouble and went after the pokemon there. He had better things to do than sit there and wait for the man to stop being a coward. The boy cursed himself for being so utterly useless in this fight. His attention was constantly drawn towards the wrong things. It was all too surreal and horrifying of a concept.

Xerneas was about to be swarmed by the powerful pokemon, and the legendary refused to harm them to the point where they could not recover. She would not abandon Matt and Marigold, and yet she could not afford to be captured by any trainer, let alone a dark ball.

She was conflicted. So very conflicted.

The magnezone was going to hit her this time. It had used the lock on technique, and its beam was going to strike without fail. Xerneas had to make her decision now. Run or help?

But the beam came to her before she could decide, so conflicted was the legendary. She closed her eyes on impulse, feeling the energy race through the air of her forest.

But nothing struck her. She felt no pain. Xerneas opened her eyes, seeing the boy from before standing in front of her, staff having absorbed the flash cannon attack. He looked back at Xerneas, his eyes asking if she was all right.

Xerneas recognized something about the way he looked at her. Like she had seen that kind of worried look before. She couldn't place it, though. What she did notice was the boy turning and unleashing a large amount of steel type energy on the magnezone, sending it spinning out of battle but not unconscious.

She watched him blur and disappear before the charizard roared in pain and anger. Then, it clicked in Xerneas' mind. She had seen that before. His movements had been almost as if he hadn't been going at the intense speeds that he was, as if everything else was slowing down instead. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

And then she saw Riley kicking off of the fire type's head, making Charizard rear back and fall over onto his back, with several bruises on his shoulders and head. Riley's backflip ended with a simple landing position, as he looked up to see Gigalith towering over him.

" **Do not interrupt our destruction of Xerneas**." Gigalith rumbled. He launched a stone edge at Riley, and the boy braced himself.

Just before Xerneas thought the boy was going to be taken apart by the flying stones, Riley set his hands on the middle of his staff and whirled the weapon in circles with his hands, creating a blur that acted like a violent shield and shattered every stone, sending pieces flying.

"For a giant rock, you move pretty fast," Riley admitted as he sidestepped the massive stomp attack once more. "But that doesn't mean that for a living being, you're not immensely slow."

His staff shot out and absorbed the fireball that the charizard had thrown at it. The boy leaped all the way up the massive pokemon and slammed the fire straight into the mineral-like eye of the gigalith. Not a permanent injury; they could recover, but for the moment, Gigalith was not going to be able to see out of that eye with the mineral-like material slightly melted.

Riley then kicked away from the roaring pokemon, delivering a strike to Charizard right on the windpipe straight from above. He landed with the staff releasing the last of its flames, like how an action movie character would land after an impressive aerial technique. The charizard again went down, struggling to breathe, and the gigalith stumbled and nearly fell itself.

Xerneas snuck away from the battle between Riley and the three pokemon, confident that the boy could distract them without too much effort. Matt was, after all, hurt. His mother would have fewer injuries, considering she was hit by less raw power over a wider area, but she still must tend to the both of them.

She knocked out the returning Magnezone with a good blast of fairy type energy to lighten the boy's load. Approaching the boy and his mother, she unleashed a heal pulse on the both of them, beginning to heal their bruises.

"Ignore the boy, get Xerneas!" Pariah shouted, aware that he was losing this fight badly. He was sounding desperate. Kazekai tried to obey, but Kurenai held him down until he started fighting her again.

Kurenai held one paw up in her sitting position. Her claws faced upwards, her pad faced outwards. Kazekai attacked with his own claws, and Kurenai swiftly batted each strike aside. Or simply blocked them with a speed never seen before on the absol. She was simply tired of playing the underdog. Tired of being tired. She only feared one thing: Water. And that was because of a traumatic experience when she was not this powerful. There was no water here. Thus, Kurenai was not afraid. Not afraid of her brother, who had no control. Not afraid of Pariah, who was truly pathetic behind that shield. Not afraid.

Not afraid…

She was confident that Riley could free Kazekai. She **knew** that would be the outcome. So she defended herself against her brother as calmly as she could and using as little energy as she could knowing, eventually, she would be able to go back to not fighting and being peaceful again. She felt changed whenever she was forced to fight. Almost entirely different. Fighting awoke her, in a sense. Not that she liked being awoken much.

If awoken was the right word. Maybe the opposite was more accurate. She didn't feel nearly as empathetic now. Like being… Emptier. She preferred being empathetic. But that would not help now. Block this, block that, knock that aside. Flip Kazekai over. Do it again. Stall until Riley can take the dark ball from the man and take off with it, so they could break it.

Her now utterly calm eyes fixed on Kazekai. As with the effects of the dark ball, Kazekai could only grow more enraged and murderous with each failure, but he would obey and kill this other absol he was not bothering to recognize.

Kurenai rolled her paw, disengaging her brother's stabbing maneuver, before grabbing his paw with her mouth, yanking him up beside her, and batting him on the back of the head with her pad just hard enough to knock him out. Kazekai didn't get up from the blow, although he would live without any permanent injuries.

She then found a position nearby him where she could watch for threats, and so that if he awoke, he could not attack her. And for the first time in a nearly unimaginable amount of years for her, she stayed next to her brother.

Xerneas turned from the peacefully sleeping hybrids and looked over to see a defeated charizard and a nearly defeated gigalith. The boy kept using his enraged attacks against him with his staff, a metal that Xerneas rarely saw. She watched as he finally smashed the rock apart on the face of the gigalith, taking off a good chunk of its face. The rock material would regrow on the pokemon, of course. It was not a permanent wound.

Pariah stared at his defeated pokemon. "They were supposed to be the greatest team I could use!" He exclaimed in disbelief.

"News flash, asshole." Riley started.

"There was no 'teamwork' involved in their fighting." Xerneas continued, knowing the man had a translator on his arm device. "They brainlessly attacked in rage."

Riley approached the shield. "There are ways we could probably break through the shield before the sigilyph dies from holding it up with all of its energy." He ventured.

Pariah took his dark balls off of his belt and tried to return his pokemon swiftly. The beams cut straight through the shield. Every wakeful person shouted in surprise the moment it happened, but Riley could only put his staff in the way of the beam headed for Kazekai. The rest of the infected pokemon were absorbed back into their balls. Riley now had the energy from a dark ball in his staff, and he angrily pointed his staff at Pariah. He unleashed the dark energy in its beam, which cut through the safeguard easily and struck two of the dark balls.

An error seemed to occur within the balls that were struck, making them flash and promptly detonate as if they could not appropriately calculate the 'pokemon' returned into the ball. The back feed simply killed them.

The dark balls that would contain Kazekai and the still active Sigilyph detonated on the spot. Pariah shouted and looked at his hands, which had dark ball shards embedded in them. His horrified expression more than confirmed what would happen next.

Dark energy roared from the pinpricks of energy that the dark balls had left in their wakes, racing straight to Sigilyph and Kazekai. The former's safeguard flickered but did not die. Kazekai, for his part, bolted to his paws and **screamed**. Pain poured through him before he collapsed in a heap again, unconscious once more. Kurenai scrambled to tend to him, looking normal once more.

"Oi, Sigilyph," Riley called casually. "If you're gonna stay awake, could you lower that safeguard so we can free the rest of them?"

Sigilyph didn't respond for a bit. Riley blinked and frowned, and Pariah smirked. "Hah," he said, wincing as he picked shards out of his hands, watching his hands bleed with a somewhat sickened face. "You don't get it, do you. Sigilyph?"

Sigilyph psychic message reached everyone. " **We will never forgive the world. We will never submit to those in control. My ball was a mere ultra ball that was colored differently.** " It revealed in a dark tone. Riley stiffened, staring at the pokemon. " **As you can see, I am quite awake. I am not one of the pitiful creatures my friend has commanded elsewhere. I will not drop our shield. You will allow us to walk away.** "

Riley's face contorted in rage. " **No!** " He shouted, thrusting his staff into the shield again and began draining it. "I can't believe a pokemon like you would let this torture and pain happen to others!"

" _He has much too much faith in pokemon as a species."_ Xerneas realized sadly.

"I **can't** believe that!" Riley roared, even as the psychic and flying type floated closer to its master.

"I guess we'll be going now. Failed to get Xerneas, but there are… Other legendaries out there." Pariah said.

And Sigilyph teleported the two away as the shield faded, taking the other four tormented pokemon still in their balls. Riley looked horrified at the spot, realizing that he had been far too easygoing. All of this could have been avoided if he had just snatched the balls. But he had expected this to end anyhow else. And the psychic type… He had not expected him to actually be so willing to put other pokemon like him into such torture.

"...Why?" He found himself asking. "Why would the pokemon intentionally put other pokemon into pain and suffering?"

He fell to his knees. "I… I failed," He whispered softly. "They could be anywhere."

Those four pokemon were still stuck in a state where they could only feel hatred and bloodlust. Riley knew this. He stared at the ground where the evil duo had disappeared blankly. Wallowing in his failure, descending into a sense of defeat.

But he felt a pressure on his shoulder. A comforting, yet strong pressure. He looked up to see the legendary Xerneas, who had an expression that Riley could not describe. He looked her in the eyes, and Xerneas saw the defeat in them.

"I do not know who you are," Xerneas informed him calmly "But you are clearly experienced with this sort of battle. You grew confident. You knew you could win. But you have never seen a pokemon capable of what you know humans are capable of, am I correct?"

The boy nodded mutely.

"Then use this as a learning experience," Xerneas advised him. "Not as a defeat. Pariah will show again, and next time, whoever sees him will confiscate the dark balls that he has and free the pokemon. You frightened him today as well. The main objective may have been to free the pokemon, but this battle was still a victory, as everyone is alive and well."

Amber and Scarlet jumped onto Riley's shoulders. "Yep!" Scarlet confirmed. "We're the queens of okay!"

Amber glared at Scarlet. "Those are terrible titles. Forget those titles."

Gauge loomed over everyone aside from Xerneas, but even Xerneas shivered when he stopped being quiet and was just **there** again. "You are not alone." He rumbled. "If anything, I might have helped more. But we all made very critical assumptions."

"Don't you dare beat yourself up, Riley," Kurenai ordered from where she was smoothing her brother's fur down with her tongue. She stopped talking, but the message was clear from her: You got my brother back, and that is important.

Riley stared at all of them. The battle was **lost** for the most part. Why wasn't that important to them? He didn't understand. He couldn't understand. He built himself off of success. Success was **everything**. And losing to Mute wasn't so bad because he was the one losing. No, he had lost four other people. What kind of hero does that?

He punched the dirt and stood up. "When we find him again…" Riley swore under his breath. The others knew he would never let his own failure go unless he succeeded. Xerneas' mouth tightened as she realized this. She could not dissuade the boy from feeling that way. He had likely grown up succeeding due to skill and usually not luck. To fail on the fault of his own… Of course he would be crushed. Even if his logic was flawed, he would not be convinced otherwise, because everyone had to admit to the point that it was a failure and that four others could have been saved if they had acted differently.

Amber and Scarlet began to comfort the boy as best as they could. Telling him that there would be another chance, but ultimately, Kurenai couldn't handle the boy's wallowing in shame.

"Riley!" She found herself shouting. The boy instantly whirled to face her and saw that changed Kurenai he had seen when she was defeating her brother. The brother she now protectively held her paw over as he lay unconscious. Her gaze met his perfectly evenly. "Don't you dare." She reiterated herself. "Look. Kazekai's going to be okay, okay? You saved him. You protected my brother."

Riley stared at the absol she held close to her. Seeing his face not contorted by hatred and bloodlust. He would carry scars all his life, but he would be fine. Riley saw the truth in her words. Crushed as he was by defeat, he suddenly was hit with the thought he had completely abandoned before; Maybe there was a positive to how things turned out.

Riley walked forward, up to Kurenai. "So don't you **dare**. Don't you dare feel sorry for how the battle ended because my brother is safe now. Because if it ended differently, he might have been the one that couldn't escape. He might be gone instead." Kurenai continued to admonish him, as Riley found himself unable to break eye contact.

"O… Okay…" Riley finally agreed, sitting on the ground because he didn't know if he could stand much longer. "Alright."

Kurenai then brightened considerably, looking **just** like she had whenever she was happy before this incident. "Thank you, Riley!" She exclaimed, suddenly tackling him and driving him onto his back on the ground, where she licked him a considerable number of times in gratitude. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I never thought I would see my brother again!"

Riley just submitted himself to the praise he was getting, unable to form a proper response. So conflicted was he about the many, many things that had gone wrong and had gone well.

He heard a groan of mild pain, and both he and Kurenai looked towards the noise to see Matt, still in half Xerneas form, staggering to his feet and then helping his mother up. They looked around until they were able to focus on the main group.

Matt's eyes widened and he ran forward. "Xerneas!" He shouted, and as Riley tensed, his hand on his staff… "You're okay!"

Riley watched, dumbfounded, as the boy who, as he had last seen been pretty much a terrible person, wrap Xerneas in a much of a relieved hug as he could manage, despite being much smaller than the legendary. In fact, Riley's mouth hung open. Kurenai understood what she was seeing and smiled.

Riley went and sat down again. "This is too much…" he muttered, rubbing at his eyes with his hand. The boy was having trouble comprehending what was happening. "Too much."

Marigold noticed the stressed boy and went to greet him. "Hello." She began, causing the orange-haired boy to look at her. He saw a half-gardevoir, half-human woman until she changed into her original form. She held out her hand to the boy calmly.

He took it and stood up, taking her appearance in. Long, blonde hair, vibrant green eyes that shone with intelligence, light, fair skin. Her clothes did still exist, though her pants faded to be replaced by the natural dress that gardevoirs had when she transformed. She looked a lot like Matt had in that form. "...Hi, I guess." He replied dumbly.

"You're losing it." Amber hissed in his ear teasingly.

Riley woke up at that, picked Amber up by the scruff, and held her in front of him. "It's been a while since I've-" he began.

"Nonono no hugging!" Amber exclaimed, and suddenly did a quarter morph into her vaporeon form, forcing Riley's fingers open enough so that when she suddenly stopped changing and became an eevee again, she was out of his grip and running away.

Marigold started chuckling. "An interesting friendship the two of you have," She commented as Scarlet chased Amber down.

"Yeah…" Riley muttered, and looked at her. "...Do you read pokemon's minds to understand them?" He asked, "Because you are a psychic type?"

"No." Marigold shook her head. "I hear them speaking my language, quite like you."

Riley stopped, blinked, and stared. "...wha?" He asked, not really comprehending what it could mean but knowing that it definitely meant something of some sort.

"I believe you are the boy who frightened my son that day outside of cerulean, correct?" Marigold suddenly asked with a casual tone that sounded a bit off to Riley. It clicked for the boy, then.

"Oh… You're his mom." Riley realized, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, yeah. I did. Uh…" he trailed off, uncertain of what the woman was going to say.

Her gaze drilled into him. "An event that led to the boy being a part of an intense verbal battle in court against my son and his father?" She clarified.

"It was intense?" Riley suddenly spoke up, his impulsiveness getting in the way of basic self-preservation. "I would have thought it would be over immediately, with the evidence present."

"..." Marigold evenly looked at him, and Riley realized his blunder. He could defend himself, but he wasn't about to against an angry mother at this point. But then… "So did I, frankly. My husband was a terrible man overall. And he made certain that Matt followed **his** lead and nobody else's so that Matt might assist in the continuation of the company." She explained. "My son needed a scare, honestly. As much as I dislike the concept, he would not have been led to a better life without it. And then, he was gracious enough to include me in that life. He has changed so much in so little time…"

Riley listened closely. He hadn't known much about Matt other than the whole 'whipped absol in his possession and his attitude was terrible' bits that were so prevalent. He looked at the boy who now looked half-xerneas, talking with his teacher with a happy tone, well, that kid was an entirely different Matt, really. Riley decided he was willing to give the guy a chance.

"So what's with the new forms?" Riley had to ask, which caused Marigold to pause.

"Matt found Xerneas' Jewel of Life," she started "And after Xerneas anonymously offered him a new life, he accepted it and touched the gem. He then became directly connected to Xerneas."

"Okay… And you didn't do that?"

"No… An odd girl in all gold clothing, gold hair, and gold eyes appeared. Xerneas seemed afraid of her." Marigold explained. Riley blinked. What could frighten a legendary just by being around? Must be one scary freaking human. "She looked between Matt and I and realized that I would like to continue living with my son. What Xerneas claimed took her ten years to prepare, the girl did in five seconds without a proper host to share energy with. And with a snap of her fingers, I became half-gardevoir, with the same properties as Matt."

"Huh," Riley said, his mind reeling. Xerneas took ten years figuring out how to do something to Matt and make a change in him, and this golden girl only had to snap her fingers? "What was this human girl's name?" Riley finally asked.

"Xerneas called her 'Angelica' a few times, and also called her 'Magic'. And the girl herself referred to herself as the Guardian of Magic. Marigold explained.

The word 'Guardian' visibly jolted Riley from his thoughts and caused a new thought process to emerge in its place. " _Guardian? Like the guardian that Amber met right after she bit me?"_

He chuckled at the memory of Amber biting him and looking up to see his unimpressed face. And then he got serious. "Amber over there met a Guardian once," He said. "Apparently, the Guardian of Life."

Xerneas heard this, of course, and looked over at him in surprise. "You have met Alex?" She asked, now involved in the conversation.

"You know her?" Amber asked, hopping back on Riley's shoulder out of nowhere while Scarlet reached Riley's pant leg, panting. Riley chuckled and scratched her behind the ears.

"Yeah, I do."

Everyone whirled and looked up. There, hanging upside down from her knees on a tree branch, was a girl that Amber and Xerneas both instantly recognized. Xerneas skittered on her hooves, nearly bolting immediately away from the girl, which Riley noticed immediately.

"Alright, what's the deal with you, then?" Riley asked, "If legendaries are just going to run away from you?"

"Hey, it's the old lady!" Amber called out with glee, happy that she had finally gotten to use that joke.

Xerneas stared at Amber in horror, considering the eevee had just insulted one of the **most powerful things in the multiverse**. "Bite your tongue!" She shouted desperately.

"Hahaha!" Life laughed. The bright sound rang in everyone's ears, and the assorted plants around them grew just a little bit at the same time. "That's maybe the third time I've **ever** been called that! Fantastic. Just fantastic.

She dropped off the branch and righted herself before landing, her shoulder-length hair falling down to their proper place as she was no longer hanging upside down. "Sorry I'm late." She dusted herself off. "I was blowing up a thing. And saving something else at the same time. Actually pretty complicated."

Riley blinked at the 'late' comment, Xerneas shuddered at the words 'blowing up a thing', Kurenai nodded in understanding 'saving something else'.

Riley began seething. " **Late**?" He growled, bringing the seeming teenager's attention to him. She looked around at the battle carnage, and waved her hand in the air and then tasted her palm.

"Oh," She muttered. "Gotcha."

" _She can tell what happened by tasting her hand!?"_ Amber and Scarlet thought in unison. Life noticed their blank looks and chuckled. "Just the residue from the energy the dark balls emit is what I was tasting," She explained easily.

" **Late**?" Riley asked again in exactly the same tone. "If Xerneas is scared of you, you could have helped!"

"Sorry for saving an entirely different planet from complete annihilation…" she muttered in response, looking away. "Anyways, I happened upon you, and by your expressions, that's a huge coincidence and that you just happened across each other randomly too." She shrugged.

"Please, Life." Xerneas regained her composure. "If you can, would you free the pokemon held captive by Pariah, wherever he has gone?

"Just outside cerulean." Life answered instantly.

" _Could she taste that too?"_ Gauge wondered mentally, intrigued.

"At any rate, I cannot use force." Alex continued.

Riley was understandably enraged. "Why not!?"

"Because I might use too much power by accident and obliterate the pokemon inside of the dark balls if I used force," Alex explained bluntly. Everyone but Xerneas was surprised by this. "I will, however, attempt to reason with him. Some men have their reasons for hating the world, as do some pokemon. I will… Speak with him. I will attempt to make him see reason, and perhaps make some threats, but I cannot directly attack. Too much damage might be done."

"She is correct," Xerneas spoke up before Riley could question the statement's validity. Riley halted and looked at Xerneas, bewildered, but then he sighed and tapped his staff against the ground a few times.

"..." Riley walked over and knelt by Kurenai and the sleeping Kazekai without another word, rubbing Kurenai's cheek and laying a hand on Kazekai's head while he slept. Gauge joined them there, and so that group stayed.

Amber, for her part, had gotten her joke in, but wasn't really too keen on talking to the superhuman whatever she was over there. She instead wanted to see the absol wake up, so she ignored Alex.

The guardian of life sighed. Sighed with evident relief, actually. "Thank goodness. Being the center of attention is annoying." She muttered. She looked at the trio of people before her. "Ah, hello. You guys are just standing there… Staring at me… Well, the timing sure is convenient."

"Uh…" Matt started., but cut himself off.

Alex rolled her eyes. " **Seriously** , you lot! Xerneas, how many times have I asked you to treat me as you would treat anybody? And I **know** you talked about that to this kid and his mother."

"Sorry, Alex!" Xerneas exclaimed. "Ah… Er…"

The guardian sweatdropped. "You guys are bad at this." She deadpanned. "Come on, how do you greet a friend?"

Her urging motion brought Marigold to a point where she could form complete sentences. "Hello." She greeted the girl, extending her hand. "My name is Marigold."

Life took the hand and shook it politely. "Alex," she replied, and looked at the others. "You two are practically embodiments of the energy that I'm the sentient core of. And of you three, it's the one without a direct connection to me that's not afraid. What gives?"

"Ah… Sorry Alex."

Another eye roll. "Anyways, a **lot** of new things have obviously happened, with you two living with Xerneas now. Any questions for me?"

"Yeah." Matt suddenly said. "How do the legendaries know you, how many of you are there, what are you, etcetera."

Alex clapped her hands. "Yes! Brilliant!" She exclaimed, happy that someone had actually asked her a few questions like a normal person. "Okay. First answer. The legendaries know of me, of us, because we have a massive influence on the multiverse, and not the way you might think."

Matt blinked. "So… Not because you did something and everybody noticed?"

"Well~... Kind of sort of." Alex admitted. "See, it's like this. The greater impact you have on the future, or past, of your universe, the more your influence spreads throughout the multiverse. They call that concept waves of influence. Not physical waves at all, no way. And yet, if you have a massive impact on your universe, you may find that another universe will have stories of you, or your actions and adventures, or even people just like you, namesakes, existing in other universes that look, sometimes act like you."

Matt tilted his head. "So… You make a massive impact on one universe, your stories pop up in another universe, and people know you that way?"

Life applauded. "A smart one. Brilliant." She said, in no way sarcastic. "Now, the guardians, that's us, are one of a kind each. Nobody with our exact powers are going to show up anywhere in the multiverse. The only twelve. However, people who look like we do are still likely to appear. Because our very existence massively affects the entire multiverse constantly, we make such an influence that most universes have versions of us or people who look like us that make their own decisions and are basically their own people, in control of their lives."

"And stories," Matt added.

"And stories." Alex agreed. "See, in this universe, as far as I gather from talking with Arceus, she's nice, the legendary pokemon discovered a pocket of space with ancient writings and things that Arceus claims she never created. And it's a simple room outside of most planes of existence in this universe, with twelve sides to the wall, and each of them depicts us and our power. I took a look. Pretty in-depth stuff, actually. Not perfect representation, but at least it didn't label us vengeful deities or whatever."

Matt hummed while thinking. "So legendary pokemon are afraid of you because they saw a picture on a wall of you?"

"Partially because Arceus didn't put it there. Not like we did, either, of course. But they are more afraid of the power we possess. The kind of power that could annihilate a universe without much effort at all."

Everyone within earshot blanched at the phrasing she used. Alex continued on. "As for your next question, We call ourselves the Guardians. Not guardians of anything, really. Just the Guardians. There are twelve of us, yes, Life, that's me, Magic, that's Angelica, Time, Water, Fire, Electricity, Wind, Light, Darkness, Aura, Technology, and Sound. We are… Complicated. Hard to describe."

"I'm listening," Matt said quickly.

"Alright. The best description of us would probably be sentient cores. Specifically, sentient cores of each of our elements. I am the sentient core of Life, as an example. All life energy is a part of my actual body. My mind, simply put, is here. The only reason I have this body at all is because it used to be mine…" she trailed off for a moment. "...Before things went crazy, I guess. Anyways, yes. That's us. The people that gods insist on being afraid of, and honestly, if we made a mistake, it wouldn't be pretty. That is why Darkness declared that we must keep a no interference policy to avoid mistakes. Because even under the logic of mistakes making people better, you can't exactly threaten entire universes worth of people to get better."

"So… If you stay away… Why are you here?" Matt asked now.

"I guess we're… Cheating our own rules. It can get boring, you know. Just watching. Angelica interferes the most with different universes, running around, pranking people and helping people and changing people in ways that usually end for the better, physically or mentally, through reasoning and maybe direct manipulation if it is required. But yeah. It's cheating. I'm about to cheat right now and try to talk Pariah into releasing the pokemon he enslaved. We cheat all the time, honestly."

She leaned forward. "You have no idea how many bad endings would have awaited people if we hadn't cheated," She said seriously. "Sometimes, you **have** to manipulate something beyond their control in order to have a happy ending. Sometimes, there's just no choice."

She leaned away and was all smiled again. "That answer your questions?"

Matt gulped. "Uh… Yeah," he confirmed. Now he **was** more frightened. Who wouldn't be? After some story like that? She made it sound like if Arceus was as easily cowed by the other legendaries, he, or she, would try and bow as well, something that seemed to annoy Life.

It was also unsettling to hear that she was all life. He self-consciously put his hand over his chest fur. This girl's true body had been swirling within his own constantly throughout his life. Throughout everybody, whether they had the power to give life or not. "That is… Weird. That your actual body is inside everyone else's body." He finally said.

"A lot of people say that." Life looked away. "I suppose the Guardians are used to it by now."

"I have my own question," Marigold spoke up. "When you said you were saving an entire planet, I suppose you meant another one of these universes?"

"Yep." was her simple response.

Xerneas finally managed to smile, seeing the people she cared for so easily getting along with the guardian. "I suppose it is clear why I have reason to be afraid." She ventured eventually. "Considering her true body is the energy I give on a daily basis. Despite how unreasonable the fear is, I do fear that she may become enraged with me one day and simply tear the life from me."

Matt nodded. "I can see why that would make you afraid." He concurred. "I'm quaking a bit thinking about that too, but I doubt Alex here is ever going to get mad at us."

"Why would I do that?" Life asked, genuinely confused.

"I don't know." Matt shrugged helplessly. "Is there a reason that you dropped by?"

"Not really, other than to greet my friend." She looked at Xerneas "Try as she might to be afraid of me." She looked now at the other group, who had entirely stopped paying her attention. "That lot has the right idea. Anyways, I probably should go again, if I'm going to do what I promised I would."

"...Alright, Alex." Xerneas said eventually. "I am… Sorry for being unable to drop my fear of you like I should."

"Apology accepted," Alex replied without a single moment's hesitation, a cheerful expression on her face. Then, a light appeared above her like a spotlight, maple leaves began appearing and floating upwards, and the sounds of birds chirping filled the air. "Until next time," She said, her voice echoing, before she flashed away in a pillar of green light, into the warm vertical sunbeam she had somehow summoned.

Xerneas let out the breath she had been holding. She sighed and lay down slowly, as if heavily stressed. Matt moved over to her and sat next to her with a similar expression on her face, and started talking to her, comforting her. Marigold marveled at the way those two interacted with each other.

Everyone was quiet and thoughtful for ten minutes before Kurenai's miracle finally came to pass.

"Mmm… Erg, what?" Someone asked.

Kurenai peered down. "Brother?" She asked softly. Kazekai shifted, groaned, and tried to push himself up, but became weak and fell over onto his back. His face turned upwards towards Kurenai, his eyes fluttered open.

Kurenai's heart restricted at the sight of those permanent black streaks running through his eyes. He would carry that mark for the rest of his life. The mark of a pokemon once owned by a user of a dark ball. He looked up at Kurenai and whispered her name.

"..Kurenai…" he whispered. "It's… You."

"Yes, brother. It's me." She replied softly. "I'm here. We won't have to separate again."

"I… I was so angry… I hated everything. I wanted to tear everything to splinters, to bloody pieces…" he muttered "Until that absol beat me. Then it hurt… It's hard to remember…"

Kurenai knew that her brother was lying for the most part. He remembered. But he just proved himself a quick thinker there. "That absol… Kurenai?"

"I'm here, brother."

"I attacked… You…" he whispered slowly. He grunted and lay his head back for a while, as if processing this. "I wanted to kill you, to tear you apart." He continued "But…" he suddenly smiled and chuckled. "You kicked my ass." He finished with a small smile.

Riley, Gauge, Amber, and Scarlet all adopted a 'can't argue with that' expression. Kurenai just brought her head down and nuzzled him. "No, I just pushed you around a bit." She refuted with a smile. "And Riley's the one who actually saved you."

When Kazekai's eyes turned to Riley, he grimaced. "Right. You're the guy who spun me around by my horn. I vowed to kill you in my mind after that." He said. "Not that I want to anymore, of course." He started nuzzling Kurenai back after a moment, his tired mind registering that she was doing that in the first place.

Riley smirked. "I'm used to having people after my head," He told Kazekai, who found himself rolling his eyes. Amber facepawed and Scarlet nodded grimly. Gauge continued looming over all of them silently, as he does.

Kazekai looked his sister in the eye. "Quite the odd group you found yourself in," he told her, finally managing to flip onto his stomach and stand up.

"You going to be okay?" Gauge asked him monotonously.

Kazekai had to think about it for some time. He was not the type to blame himself for something he had no control over, but the pain he inflicted while he was affected still stuck in the back of his mind. He knew that he wouldn't stay in perfect condition all the time. He was aware that even if the dark ball broke, he might still go into violent bouts with the right trigger. He was ordered to learn it, and so he did. Obeying every order one is given can feel odd afterward. Those pokemon he knew bled under his claws would not just leave his memory.

"...As long as you don't ask how many people I've hurt…" he began "I think I'm going to be fine."

Kurenai gave a purr of delight and crashed into him with a hug, sending both siblings tumbling across the grass. Kurenai laughed and started ranting about how happy she was that she could see him again. She was back to normal all of a sudden, back to the kind caring Kurenai who disliked violence.

Kazekai grunted. "Can't breath… On top of me.." He muttered. Kurenai yelped and rolled off of him rather unceremoniously. Riley frowned at her for a moment. She had so easily bested Kazekai and now she was being clumsy again? Why? Everyone here had seen what she was capable of.

" _Perhaps it is because Kurenai likes being clumsy. If she pays less attention to the ground around her unless she needs to, she would trip up more. She can cause herself to be clumsier. Maybe that's just who she wants to be."_ Riley thought.

" _She hides a lot under her personality. She's… How might I describe her?"_ Gauge asked in his mind. He stared at her without really realizing it.

Kazekai finally got to stand up for an extended period of time. He looked over everybody, and smiled. His sister was here, and she had found a good family. A family of weirdos, but a family nonetheless. "Welp. Best get to know you lot." He muttered.

"Hey, you should probably rest," Riley said. "You're probably disoriented."

Kazekai **was** disoriented, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. "It's fine. Besides, we can walk and talk and that, right?"

" _He is pretending not to be thinking about the damage he caused when he was forced to hate everybody and everything."_ Kurenai thought sadly. " _I need to talk to him alone at some point."_

"Guys, actually, I'd like to talk to my brother alone for a while." Kurenai quickly intervened. The others understood except for Kazekai, but Kurenai led him away anyways, through some of the trees and to a spot where they would not be interrupted, when Kazekai turned to face her.

He was shocked to find Kurenai look so sad, so resigned. Before he had been taken from her, she had always been happy and carefree, playing around. The others had looked at her with surprise, and Kazekai calculated that she must act like that normally still. Why would she act like this now?

"Kazekai… Please. I know you are trying to let go of what you were forced to do in the past. And I know you are frustrated because you can't." Kurenai started softly. "Just… You're trying to focus on what you don't want to ever remember again."

Kazekai listened to the words of wisdom, his eyes widening. When did his sister get so… Deep? "Kurenai…" he whispered.

Kurenai approached and wrapped her foreleg around Kazekai in a hug of sorts. "Just focus on what's happening now, okay?" She pleaded. Her brother leaned into the hug heavily, his eyes not focusing on anything for a while.

"I don't know how" He whispered honestly.

"Then let us help you." She offered sincerely.

"I hurt a lot of people, Kurenai. I probably killed some, too."

"No, you didn't. Trust me when I say that it was not you. Your claws have blood on them, but you didn't do that yourself." Kurenai told him. She drew back and smiled at him. "You're not allowed to beat yourself up, okay? We see enough of that with Riley."

Kazekai smiled. "..I'll try. Thank you, sister."

"No problem, Kazekai," Kurenai responded with a smile. Then, she led him back to the main group, who were speaking with Xerneas and their group, although Matt and Riley stood a distance away from each other.

Riley and Matt stood three feet from each other. Riley had his arms crossed, a stern and analytical look on his face. Matt stood there sweating a bit, in his half Xerneas form. The latter boy wondered what the heck Riley wanted, and why he was staring at him.

"Xerneas, huh?" Riley finally asked.

"Uh… What?"

"I've heard some things about her. Didn't know that she was the type to take someone in so easily. How'd it happen?"

"Oh… Uh… My father was utterly enraged for starters that I had 'ruined his business', and I suppose when I heard those words and then thought about yours, something seemed really, really wrong with what he was doing all of a sudden. I mean, I had been doubtful before. I hadn't even known pokemon were sentient." Matt started to explain.

Riley quirked an eyebrow, and Matt hurriedly continued. "So… I didn't want any retaliation or anything. I decided to run off… At least for a while, so that he could cool down. Never seen him so mad… But the food I had packed was dwindling, and I was feeling roughed up from the wilderness without a pokemon protecting me."

"This wilderness." Riley understood.

"Yeah. Exactly." Matt nodded. "I found a clearing where Xerneas had apparently just placed a gem the size of a baseball on a pedestal of sorts. She spoke in my mind, and we came to the conclusion that I wanted a new life. I hadn't any idea who she was at the time, and it's worth noting that I hadn't a single clue what was about to happen to me. Even so, after I was done panicking and staring at my fur, a really weird experience, I should tell you, Xerneas helped me for a while. And then… We went back to Vermillion so I could see what was going on from my new perspective."

He shuddered. "The pollution poisoned the air, and I could **smell** it. It almost nauseated me."

"Quite the learning experience," Riley commented. "Was Xerneas there?"

"Yeah, invisible. After all, she was giving me a new life. Why would she just drop me off and tell me to figure it out?"

" _I know one legendary that kind of did that."_ Riley thought.

"Anyways, it wasn't easy, and I got attacked by a few trainers, though I seem to heal really quickly, but only when I'm still conscious apparently, considering how 'well' I handled the charizard back there. But I managed to find my home and pay a visit. Father was shouting at Mother, and I guess I didn't like that much. But before I could do anything, the guardian of magic, this girl all in gold colors with pale skin, interrupted us and made the next part surprisingly easy, although she was kind of insensitive to the topic of personal space. She made my mother like me in a sense in a matter of seconds. And then both mother and I left."

Riley's stern look turned into a smile of sorts, easing Matt's worries a bit. "And then Xerneas taught me to get my human form back and switch between the two." He dropped his voice. "Once she stopped making me do tree-growing lessons." He finished in a mutter.

Riley erupted in laughter at that. Matt stared at him incredulously until he stopped. "Tree growing lessons. That's fantastic…" Riley exclaimed with mirth.

"Hey, I need to learn how to share life energy."

Matt's point got Riley to stop chuckling. Eventually. "I get it," Riley said, calmer now. "But your phrasing made it sound a lot more funny to have watched in action."

"..." Matt didn't know what to say for a while. "...Why are you being so nice to me? You were ready to take my head off when I last met you."

"You were a terrible person, then," Riley commented rather lightly. "Heck, you'd have qualified as a terrible human being too."

"Thanks." Matt drily said, eyes narrowing a bit.

Riley barked with laughter, walked by Matt towards Xerneas while patting the hybrid on his back as the warrior passed Matt. Matt wasn't expecting that and nearly fell face first onto the ground. When he caught himself, he found a certain absol he recognized easily and quickly. He quickly got on one knee now, to be closer to her eye level.

"Hey, Matt." Kurenai greeted him with a smile. "You've changed."

Matt couldn't comprehend what he was looking at. Kurenai, in full health, was smiling at him. **Smiling**! What on earth had he done to deserve a smile from this absol **ever**? "I…" Matt started, but couldn't continue. He could barely **look** at her. It was so painful. Because every glance he shot at her he was reminded of his old self, and at this point in his life, it was almost like a waking nightmare.

"Why… Why are you smiling at me?" Matt asked her.

"Why not?" Kurenai asked sweetly.

"But that… That's not an answer." Matt pointed out weakly.

"Are you expecting me to be mad?" Kurenai inquired, looking off to the side.

"Yes," Matt confessed.

"Why?"

"Wha-why!?" Matt exclaimed, "Because I hurt you, that's why!"

"No." Kurenai told him rather bluntly, and the boy blinked.

"...What?"

"The person you used to be hurt me," Kurenai told him simply. "Because that's not you anymore, there's no reason for me, or you or **anybody** to hold anything against you. Even Riley understands that, and he doesn't seem like the type to forgive easily."

Matt was silent, gobsmacked. His jaw hung open, and he couldn't even blink. " _Deer in the headlights."_ He recalled Magic's words in the back of his mind, but didn't bother to close his mouth. What the heck had he just **heard**? It was as if Kurenai was telling him that because he thought differently and acted differently, he should be considered an entirely different person! That was **crazy**!

...Right?

Kurenai gave him another smile and padded away. Kazekai looked conflicted, but decided that his sister knew what she was doing and let the boy be. They joined the rest of the group as they spoke together about various things, the typical result of a friend allowing two of his other friends to meet, but far more complicated.

"What is it exactly that drives you so quickly around the region?" Xerneas had to ask.

"Work," Riley replied. "I wound up on the police force, and they set me on a route through the region…"

Riley cut himself off. "Ah, **shit**." He cursed. "I'm supposed to be in Vermillion city by now!"

"..." nobody spoke for a moment.

"Crap," Amber muttered.

"Seconded." Scarlet nodded at Amber.

"We're off already?" Kazekai asked, surprised.

"Seems like it, brother," Kurenai responded. "You ready to run a lot?"

"A **lot**?" Kazekai asked, eyes widening comically.

"I really need to get back in the air." Gauge fluttered his wings.

"That's that!" Riley exclaimed, jumping up to the nearest tree branch with the two small pokemon on his shoulders. "Nice to meet you Xerneas!" He exclaimed.

"Ah, er…" Xerneas stuttered in much the way that Matt would. "N-nice to meet you? Where are you going, child?"

But Riley had bolted off, with the absol running behind him and Gauge taking to the air. Xerneas flinched as she recalled something. "Wait!" She called, racing after them, but was stunned to find that her speed was outmatched by the boy and his pokemon, except Kazekai, who was caught off guard by the immense speed his sister and her friends had taken. And even he managed to catch up with them, wheezing, while Xerneas lost ground quickly and had to stop.

She huffed. "I did **not** just allow that boy to run off without asking about Dialga!" She cursed herself for her foolishness and turned around. "Bah. I am certain that he knows of his heritage." She muttered, cursing herself repeatedly.

"You're cursing yourself a lot," Matt noted.

"It has been a stressful day, Matt." Xerneas sighed. "I suggest that we go home."

"I agree." Marigold nodded, looking over at Matt. "My boy looks like he's going to drop into sleep at any moment."

Matt **was** exhausted, he realized. Partially because he had spent several minutes just now trying to think of why Kurenai would ever forgive him. She had explained it, but that made no sense, at least, he thought. It was too… **Simple**. That was the problem. Matt thought there must be another reason because it had to be too easy. He nodded and leaned against his mother's shoulder as the group began to walk into the forest again, the plant life restored to the area and most of the damage gone.

* * *

Pariah slumped against the wall of the city, his trusted sigilyph by his side. The psychic pokemon hovered near him, allowing the man to rest. The alley they sat in was grimy and appealing, but it was safe from any prying eyes. It was dark enough to hide faces.

" **Why did we fail**?" Sigilyph asked as calmly as it could.

"We were vastly outnumbered, and some of them fought like demons." Pariah slammed his palm into the alley floor. "And my absol was supposed to be able to tear the other absol apart piece by stinking piece!"

" **And yet the other absol far outmatched Absol,** " Sigilyph replied in it's odd, telepathic voice. " **Despite the training we gave that pitiful beast**."

Pariah's fingers curled into a fist. "We lost Xerneas." He changed the subject.

" **Without a doubt. I have my doubts that we will have such a chance again.** " Sigilyph agreed.

"How pitiful must we look? That we cannot hold a single legend within our grasp?" Pariah asked, "The man in charge **assured** me that I would be able to kill at least one of the opposition!"

" **The man charge is also pitiful.** " Sigilyph decided. " **If he is to underestimate our opponents. We require more equipment. We have our supply of dark balls.** "

"Yes…" Pariah said, starting to stand up. "I have an idea, but we must move discreetly," He claimed. "And we must do some research"

He started to walk towards the entrance of the alley, and into Cerulean City, but he was interrupted by a voice. "Not going to greet your guest at all?"

Both man and pokemon whirled to see a girl with shoulder-length black hair and an odd mix of battle suit and kimono in green as her clothing. She leaned on the wall, looking at them.

"And who are you?" Pariah asked.

The girl's expression was saddened. "Someone who knows what you both have been through."

Rage flared in the man's eyes. " **You dare**!?" He bellowed instantly, closing in and delivering a punch to the girl's stomach, making her double over. " **No one will ever understand**!"

Alex slowly rose up, allowing some of her power loose as her eyes glowed green slightly. The man took a step back as she said: "I understand far more than you might imagine."

"Enough of this!" He shouted "Sigilyph!"

" **With pleasure**." The psychic type's eye glowed and it unleashed a large psybeam into the girl at maximum power. The smoke drifted from the ally as the man smirked. "That did it." He proclaimed, taking a step out of the way.

"...Is that really your outlook on life?" The girl's voice asked calmly, making both man and psychic type stiffen and turn around again. As the smoke cleared, they saw a horrific looking sight. One-half of the girl's face had been blasted and was missing most of the skin. Her left eye was still intact. She frowned. "I cannot believe I just make that joke," She admitted, looking away to her left, showing Pariah the full result of his actions, and then he watched as within seconds, the skin, hair, and eye all reformed.

"What are you!?" Pariah stepped away from the girl."

"Good question." Life responded. "I could give you the technical answer, or the personal answer."

" **Technical**." Sigilyph responded immediately, and Pariah nodded.

"That's your problem," Alex told them bluntly. "Because it is the personal answer that matters far, far more than the technical answer. I could tell you that I am the guardian of life, one of the twelve most powerful beings in the entire multiverse and everyday average world saving universe saving hero on the side, or I can tell you that I honestly, truly, do not know what I am on the inside. Philosophical stuff that people sometimes fall asleep to. Really, that speech could be the replacement for a lullaby sometimes."

"What's your point?" Pariah asked impatiently.

"My point is you were both wronged severely, and now you both blindly lash out at the world. It does not have to be that way. You can choose to do better. You can choose to work your way back into society.

The man scowled. "I will not pander to the pathetic populations of people who so clearly hate whatever is different." He snarled. "Now, if you have anything else to waste my time with, you had better do it now, whatever you are.

"I was going to ask you to be kinder to your pokemon, to release them from those horrid pieces of technology." Life ventured, gesturing to the dark balls. "The true value of a pokemon, and a human for that matter, is companionship. Those pokemon are forcibly turned into mindless killers. You will never learn compassion that way."

" **That is where you have mistaken your audience.** " Sigilyph proclaimed. " **We know what compassion is, but we choose to ignore it as we have been ignored. You cannot change that.** "

"I can." Life refuted immediately, then paused. "But… I will not. Because ultimately, choice is the most important. I would venture that someday you may learn, and that day the pokemon will be free. The day you free yourself will lead to that. Until then, I will not control what you do. You can be terrible. You can be describable as a monster, and I would still not hunt you down. Because I am giving you a choice. Not a test, a choice."

She began to walk away from the duo back into the alley. She looked over her shoulder at the two of them. "Use that choice wisely," She advised, disappearing in a pillar of green light.

Pariah stared at the smoking spot where the girl had been, where moss and flowers were pushing themselves from the concrete. Then he glanced at the dark balls. A flicker of doubt appeared for a moment before he brutally squashed it. "Pathetic that I would begin to sway to the words of one pitiful little teenager." He snarled, unaware of who he had been speaking to and assuming that her exit had been a trick orchestrated by one of her pokemon. Come, Sigilyph. We go to the library."

" **Yes, of course.** " Sigilyph followed the man through Cerulean city.

* * *

 **Kazekai, Kurenai's brother, joins the team. And Xerneas gets cut off from a question that apparently mattered. I have a feeling that Riley is the only one not in the loop at this point. You guys probably get exactly what's up with him as well. I liked writing this chapter a lot..**

 **And Kurenai shows that she does indeed have a serious side. A serious, ninja side. A serious ninja side considering that she's a quadruped.**

 **I found that I have little to say in the closing A/Ns a lot recently. I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please review, give me your thoughts, and I will see you all next time. I hope you enjoyed. Good day.**


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Moving On

**So, this chapter's going to be interesting. I had to put a lot of stuff together, and found that it was hard to expand it in a lot of detail. If I added anything else, it might have been unnecessarily long and end at a part that would seem like... not an ending point. So, I don't know how exactly it's going to be received compared to my other chapters.**

 **But let's get to reviews, shall we?**

 **Amber: Well... Think about it, Arata The Legend. If you're immortal, and interfering in universes means consequences, what would you do with the first thousand years? And then... What about the next? And the next? And then three and a half billion?**

 **Jango: Aaaanyways, I'm sure West is there after that review. So you know what's happened to him. Yeahhhh Hyper's bad at realistic stories. He likes happy stories. So he tells the stories that involve us. Not that New Age is** **AS happy, but still. those guardians are going to be easier to understand from this point forward, I guess.**

 **Me: thank you for joining us, Calvire, if you are up to this chapter by the time I update the story.**

 **Amber: so... We didn't know that Kurenai meant something at all for quite a while. Turns out it means Crimson. Kind of an 'oh wow' moment for Hyper and I. I think Jango was making fun of Frost at the time for something.**

 **Me: All things considered, we're pretty safe from Frost here. On the plus side, her visits to our place and getting caught in Jango's sometimes physics breaking traps is keeping Jango nearby at least. And if Frost directly tries to hurt Jango...**

 **Amber: Well, I'm going to protect him, so...**

 **Me: Hurting Jango probably wouldn't help Frost out so much. Now, Thank you, Phillip Harbindinger, for your noticing Pariah's failure to question it, and I will be addressing it pretty quickly.**

 **And... Wow. Nopemanor, you have surprised me. Why is it I keep making these completely random coincidences? Well, Kazekai, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

 **That's it for reviews, so please, if you are ready, read on in the chapter. Thanks!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nineteen: Moving On**

Millicent sat reading a book. A belt with pokeballs was hidden under her shirt this time, and she was reading a book titled: "Ancient artifacts and where they might be". She adjusted a pair of reading glasses and turned the page, seeing a familiar device and giving a small smile.

" _Oh, Millicent. Our favorite family heirloom."_

She smiled and left the book at that, moving aside to do some work with her computer. She was currently at the library in cerulean, on the job. She matched up the computer's data on which books were out of the library to her notes, noticed an error, and fixed it with the utmost haste.

Working at the library was usually a peaceful job. Disturbances were very, very rare, and Cerulean City was usually a very peaceful place in the first place. She could remember exactly two situations where someone had become more than a little disruptive.

" _As in violent."_

She nodded and looked up as the door opened.

" _Look alive. I don't like this one."_

Millicent wondered why the man had such extravagant clothing. And why a sigilyph floated alongside them. Sigilyphs were an uncommon species of pokemon, even in Unova. And the look in its eye was something that set Millicent on edge.

* * *

Earlier, Pariah and Sigilyph walked along the street, having quite the mental argument.

" _I keep telling you, Pariah. She could easily have used one zoroark and one abra and one decently trained audino to accomplish what she just did."_ Sigilyph asserted.

" _Yet you did not detect any other pokemon."_ Pariah shot back. The man had gotten more unnerved by the second after the spectacle with the girl had ended. Blowing it off earlier seemed not to be what was on the man's mind now. Now, he could not get his mind off of the girl.

" _I was not_ _ **attempting**_ _to."_ Sigilyph retorted.

Pariah groaned and dragged his hand over his eyes and down to his chin. " _We are going to look up this guardian of life in that library. And perhaps use some archeology books to determine where powerful and useful artifacts are being kept, perhaps in nearby museums."_

" _We could simply travel to Pewter."_

" _And not know what we are actually searching for?"_

" _Pariah, Pewter has a library as well,"_ Sigilyph muttered, ticked off.

"We are almost there," Pariah argued aloud as he turned the corner. "We need to continue on."

Sigilyph growled mentally and flew after the man as he stalked onwards. Pariah could be very stubborn sometimes.

* * *

Pariah approached the counter, seeing the girl at the counter and approaching her. He saw her tuck her long, black hair behind her ears, her green eyes seeming very bright. She stood from her computer to approach him. "How may I help you?" She asked.

Pariah put his palm on the table, glaring at the woman. "You will tell me where I can find books on recently discovered powerful artifacts… And a book involving a being known as the Guardian of Life on the side."

"...The open book on the desk there should help with the first." The girl told him, watching him immediately and roughly snatch it up "As for the second, there are a few books about legendary entities that mention that name, and one provides an image I believe."

"Heh," Pariah grinned, walking off towards the stairs to the next floor. He would have his power yet, thanks to the gullible little-

"And sir?"

Pariah turned, and stiffened. The librarian's eyes showed something far different this time. Stern, strong, and smart. "...Take care of my books." She ordered. "It would be a shame if you had to pay for the damage."

" _Be careful."_ Sigilyph suddenly ordered in his mind, startling the man. He felt a burst of anger, and stalked up to the girl once more.

"What exactly makes you think I am beneath the rules?" Pariah asked her bluntly, looking at the page that had been open, at the device on the page. "REburst, huh?"

The device looked like an arm guard, which would wrap around the forearm. A protrusion came from the center of the device, where the other side of the forearm would be. The image of the circular opening in the protrusion, which was about an inch and a half in diameter, clearly depicted a crystalline structure along the inner edge with energy drawn in the center.

The actual photograph of two of the devices had no energy already within the devices, compared to the artist's rendition.

"Heh." Pariah put the book down between them. "Sounds really nice." He continued "I'd like one of those. However, their locations are nondisclosed. Until now, of course."

" **You will give us the device on your arm,** " Sigilyph ordered, sparing a glance at the girl's arm. The sleeve of her shirt betrayed the protrusion of the device through the fabric. " **You will surrender it immediately**."

"No," Millicent said shortly.

Pariah glared at the girl. "Do you know who I am?" He asked angrily.

His menacing glare and tone were cut short by an equal glare, yet a cold, calm tone. "Who you are means nothing. This is a family heirloom of sorts, and it will not be torn from me by the likes of you. If you wish to settle this, we will do so. Outside."

Pariah glared as the woman walked away from him, out from behind her counter, and straight out the door. He knew she had what he wanted, which was a huge coincidence, but she knew that the man would have to follow her out of her precious library to go get it.

"I'll crush you, take the device, and then burn your library to the damn ground." He sneered at the woman, who had stopped in the middle of the street. Pariah frowned. Why was the traffic skirting around the library now?

"No," Millicent said flatly. "You will not."

Pariah growled and unleashed his gigalith. "Tear that girl apart." He snarled, as the behemoth began moving forward. Millicent noticed with a trained eye the damage on the rock type's own eye.

"Lairon." She said calmly. From a pokeball on her belt, the pokemon she called erupted out and slammed into the ground, facing the gigalith. Pariah stared, and then howled with laughter.

"Wahahahaha!" He roared, "You think you can defeat this? Gigalith is the prize of my collection of durable pokemon. Even a steel type cannot hope to break its defenses!"

He stopped. Millicent brought out her arm and slid the sleeve back, revealing the metal contraption. She brought her arm ahead of her and met her lairon's eyes. The pokemon nodded, and quite suddenly the crystals in the device shone and built an intense energy.

Lairon's body turned to energy and was absorbed into the device, and the girl Millicent began to glow brightly as the energy spread throughout her, changing her. Metal plates spread across her skin. When the energy faded, both Gigalith and Pariah could finally look back.

"This is the power of REburst, then," Pariah said as he looked. The girl in front of him had mostly human features with pokemon features added on in many places. Her left eye color was replaced with the color of the lairon's eyes, and her arms and legs colored like a lairon's and bulkier. "It will not stop us."

The gigalith brought it's massive leg over the girl's head and began to bring it down, intending to smash her flat.

 **Crunch**.

Gigalith tried to press down harder, and harder. Millicent wasn't budging. Her right hand had risen and caught the massive leg, and she had begun glowing with a white energy that flowed in all directions. Lairon had known the technique 'strength', which allowed this to happen.

Millicent opened her mismatched eyes, glaring at the man. Both she and Lairon's minds had become one, perfectly in sync. The power that trust created. "We cannot be defeated as one," Millicent claimed. "That is the true power we hold."

Millicent alone was always amused at her pokemon's way of speaking. It melted into their combined personality.

Gigalith continued to try and push, unable to do much other than try and destroy the girl.

"Sigilyph," Pariah ordered flatly, and the pokemon immediately floated within range and delivered a scorching psybeam in the direction of the girl, hoping to destabilize her.

 **Boom!**

Smoke filled the area, and Gigalith's leg smashed downwards all the way, destroying the pavement in the area. Pariah smirked, knowing what the wreckage would contain.

"I'll send you the bill." Millicent/Lairon declared from directly behind Pariah, causing the man to whirl. Standing between him and Millicent was an alakazam. " _This man is no threat to us."_ Alakazam broadcasted.

Pariah recognized with narrowed eyes that this woman was clearly a very accomplished trainer, despite her disarming line of work. He growled and reached for his absol's pokeball, before remembering that it was missing. Then, he brought his charizard out instead. "I'll melt you, you pathetic little girl." He threatened.

Millicent held out a pokeball, and an unown erupted from it. An unknown M, to be precise. Pariah blinked in confusion, knowing that the species was typically weak, and their mysterious power required numerous amounts of them to initiate. Why would this girl have a powerful lairon and alakazam, and then… This?

"Perhaps you are aware that an unown's power eats away at darkness?" Millicent/Lairon asked, causing the man to still "Even one can disrupt it at the very least."

"You cannot break the dark ball with one unown," Pariah responded, confident in the power of his technology. The unown flew at his charizard and just started circling it.

And with a surge of horror, he watched his charizard go **wild**. It immediately attacked the unknown, which flew far faster than the reptile could manage to attack it. "Charizard! Cease attacking!" Pariah ordered, but he got no response at all.

"Please lead the pokemon away." Millicent/Lairon asked of the unown M, which started floating into the sky, causing the enraged charizard to make haste in pursuing it.

Pariah scrambled for his dark ball and attempted to return the pokemon, but the unknown effortlessly blocked the beam and continued leading his charizard away.

" _We are quickly losing control of this fight,"_ Sigilyph noted grimly as he watched the girl. " _I suggest that we retreat."_

"Not without my charizard, dammit." Pariah muttered, "Sigilyph, go attack that unown and get it away from Charizard." Pariah sent his other pokemon out, the poliwrath and the magnezone, who charged the two individuals opposing them.

"There are times when a type advantage matters, you desperate fool." Millicent/Lairon declared, and they stomped the ground with their heavy foot. The earth rumbled around them, and from beneath the magnezone, a burst of molten earth erupted from the ground. The ground type move earth power instantly defeated the magnezone.

The poliwrath fell soon after, defeated by the powerful alakazam's psychic attack. Pariah stared at the damaged pokemon. The title 'desperate fool' rang in his ears. Anger soon followed, as it always did. He looked up to witness the lairon seemingly leaping out of Millicent's body, the girl's form reverting to normal.

With her arms crossed, the black-haired girl stepped forward. "You have no place here." She said frankly. "You attack others and expect to be given whatever you want. I promise you, you will only find more pain on your chosen path."

Sigilyph dropped down near the group with the unown in tow. Pariah quickly retrieved his charizard and gigalith, and then his poliwrath and magnezone. "We have to retreat. Again." Pariah muttered.

" **I agree,** " Sigilyph said, getting near his partner.

"You search for the second REburst device," Millicent stated. "Even if you find it, you can't use it."

Pariah smirked at her. "I'll be back." He growled, and the two of them teleported away.

Millicent stared at the destroyed road for quite some time, before she pulled her sleeve down, covering her device. Then she rubbed her hand, the one that had stopped the gigalith. "Are you all right, Lairon?"

Alakazam established a telepathic link between the two girls in time for Lairon to say " _Yes, Millicent. I'm fine."_

The girls, Alakazam included, smiled at each other. Then, ignoring the crowds of people that were forming, Millicent returned her pokemon and walked back into the library without another word. She had a report to make.

* * *

Riley and the group rested on the side of the path to Vermillion. Riley had his back to a boulder, watching the pokemon he protected with a recently acquired contented smile. He smiled because Kurenai and Kazekai currently slept, curled up as close as they could be together.

Amber was like a scarf sleeping curled around the back of his neck, which seemed not to bother her in any way for some reason. Meanwhile, Scarlet and Gauge were near each other. Electric types commonly rest near each other, sharing and equalizing energy. It was not a perfect system with Scarlet continuing to generate plasma, but still.

The boy absently rubbed Amber's ears while he rested, letting everything slip away for just a while. Staring off into space. He'd had enough life or death battles for a few lifetimes at this point, so a little rest was probably warranted.

After all, he hadn't lost a single person to any of them.

And yet, he was still on watch in a way. His mind would kick into high gear if anybody interrupted them or tried anything with anybody. Which meant that anybody who might startle him-

"Hey!"

-...Might get nearly struck down.

"Whoa, what's the deal?" The random kid asked, on the ground with Riley's staff above her, pointed at her chin. The stared down the heavy end of the staff and into the fierce eyes of the boy. He growled and put the thing away after seeing who it was.

Then Amber managed to get her position on his shoulders back after nearly falling off. "Yeah, Riley! What's the big idea!?"

Riley stepped back. "You don't just scare resting people like that." He admonished the girl "'Cause maybe some of those people just got done fighting for their **lives**."

"Uh…" the girl muttered. Riley rolled his eyes, grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her to her feet.

"What did you want?" Riley asked her.

"Er… I was gonna challenge you to a pokemon battle" she said, clearly shaken. She witnessed the boy raise an eyebrow and turn his eyes to the pokeballs on her belt. All two of them.

"Why is that?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"Why do you challenge me?"

"...That's what trainers do, right?"

"No." Riley shook his head in exasperation. "The first obligation of a trainer is to take care of their pokemon and understand them." Not that he was aware of the actual rules, if there actually were any, for being a trainer, but… "Let's see your pokemon."

She nodded at the simple order at the end, still looking bewildered by the boy's quick assertiveness despite the tired look in his eyes. Her pokeballs released a sandshrew, squirtle, and pidgey. The three pokemon all looked up at the boy with varying degrees of surprise or even worry until he knelt on one knee to be closer to their eye level.

"Hey." He said simply. The pokemon blinked and uttered their own greetings cautiously. "What's this girl's name?"

The girl moved to answer, but Riley held a hand in her direction, gesturing for her to wait. "Her dad calls her Madeleine" the squirtle offered.

"So did the nurse Joy in Celadon." The pidgey added. The sandshrew stayed quiet. Riley looked up at the now named girl.

"They only know your name from what they heard others say." He told the girl, watching her gasp. He then turned to the pokemon again, who were staring at him in wonder. "And how does Madeleine treat you?" He asked, again holding his hand up to prevent Madeleine from interrupting.

"Well, She feeds us and stuff…" the pidgey said

"She doesn't talk to us or interact as much as I've seen other trainers do." The squirtle said.

"But." the sandshrew spoke up "She uses a nice voice and encourages us in battle instead of being angry."

Riley nodded and smiled, standing up. He met the girl's eyes and his expression became stern. "You must interact with your pokemon outside of your trainer battles more often." He informed her. "You treat them properly everywhere else, which is very good, but you're very distant from them. They're not socially active."

"Oh." Madeleine muttered, "I-... I started my journey recently, and I don't know much about pokemon, so…"

"Pokemon are just as sentient as humans." Riley reminded the girl, turning to walk away. "So treat them as such."

"Nice." Amber complimented as Riley walked away, and yet the two were interrupted again.

"...How about that pokemon battle?" The girl asked again, causing the boy to turn back. Riley frowned.

"If you want a battle, it won't be my friends doing the fighting for me," Riley told her, unsheathing his staff once more and slamming the narrow end into the dirt. Madeleine flinched as Riley stepped forward. The boy was looking at her pokemon, who had seemed enthusiastic when she mentioned battling. "Your pokemon seem to want what you do. But… I don't lose." Riley said, "So if you want to prove me wrong, teamwork, trust, and clear understanding of the pokemon you care for is necessary."

Riley began twirling the weapon between his fingers before picking Amber off his shoulders and setting her on the dirt. Amber wasted no time complaining about not being able to be right there for the battle, but backed off as she did so.

The trainer seemed very uncertain. "I don't know if I want to do this…" she muttered.

Riley pointed his staff at the pokemon silently. Madeleine looked down to see her pokemon clearly nodding and trying to communicate with her. They had confident looks on their faces, and seeing that, the girl brightened.

"Sure thing." She said, "For them."

Riley smiled. "Right answer." He complimented. He brought his weapon to the ready, intending to use light strikes and reduce the speed at which he moved.

" _Teamwork… Trust… Clear understanding."_ Madeleine ran through the words in her head. Teamwork? She could do that. Trust? Manageable at this point. Clear understanding? ...No. But she could **try**. This was a learning experience, and humans are powerful through knowledge and understanding, and companionship.

It was with a strange mixture of fear and hope that Madeleine noticed how fast that had clicked in her mind.

"Pidgey! Use gust to blow the dust around! Sandshrew, hide in the dust cloud! Squirtle-... I dunno! Blast him with water or something!"

Riley sidestepped the immediate blast of water that followed her command, raising an eyebrow. That had been quick. One downside of the dust cloud was that when Riley stabbed his weapon into the stream of water, and despite the fact that the water was not outright absorbed, the weapon glowed blue, Madeleine did not see it.

Riley would have had the perfect opportunity to defeat both the sandshrew and the pidgey right there, but he held off.

"Sandshrew, keep the dust in the air with aerial sand attacks and move closer to him," Madeleine ordered.

Then she ordered the pidgey to shoot straight through the dust to hit Riley. He sidestepped the small bird, who found herself flying far too fast and madly flapping to stay in the air before turning around.

"You can't see what's going on over here," Riley commented as he heard Madeleine ask the pidgey whether she'd scored a hit.

"You said trust." The girl reminded Riley instantly, who smiled in response. "Now, mega punch!"

The sandshrew launched himself from the dust, his fist glowing brilliantly with power. Riley simply put his staff in the way, absorbing the sheer energy of the attack and then spinning the weapon, lightly knocking him on the head and sending the sandshrew to the dirt. Riley had only used a small amount of water type energy, and he dismissed the rest, opting to keep the mega punch energy.

He expected the pokemon to be dazed after the strike, but it hopped right back up and then burrowed underground. "Your friend can take a hit really well." He called.

"Wait, Sandshrew?"

"Yep." Riley sidestepped more water. The girl was keeping him talking so that she could keep attacking him, to no avail.

"Pidgey, get rid of that dust! It's not helping!" Madeleine called. The next gust attack blew the dust in his direction and past him, unveiling the battlefield so far. One hole from the dig attack, and the next two pokemon still at the ready.

Riley willingly stepped in between all of them.

"..." the girl didn't know what to do at all. She had no plan, but here he was, right in between her pokemon. On purpose. In battle. That was when it hit her. The boy was reading **her** , not her pokemon at the moment. He would avoid any attack she called. The word 'trust' continued to ring in her ears as she looked at her squirtle. "Got any ideas?" She asked.

She saw her squirtle grin, and then when she looked, she saw the boy grin as well. He squirtle simply charged, as did the rest of her team. The next few moments seemed like pure, unfollowable chaos to her, but Riley ducked Pidgey's attack and leaped over Sandshrew's dig attack, making a mid-air corkscrew, before placing his hand on the ground and pulling his entire body into a sideways roll to let the water attack harmlessly fly by.

Riley then leaped, spiraling his staff in his hand. Pidgey was smacked into the ground, and Riley continued his flip, sending the sandshrew into the air, before he hit the sandshrew hard enough to send the pokemon flying straight into the squirtle. All three pokemon squealed in surprise at being avoided and struck so easily.

Riley stood up and dusted himself off. "Not all opponent's will be like I am." He said "But some may be. Now, how do you think you could have handled that?"

"Well… If I led you with my shot…" Squirtle muttered

"Not my actions, but my style." Riley corrected. "I see what you do and dodge accordingly. How do you think you can avoid that?"

"Uh…" Madeleine muttered.

"Do something you don't expect?"

Riley looked over and nodded to the sandshrew, who was getting less quiet over time. "And there's one other thing that can help you." He continued, looking directly at Madeleine. "One of the best ways to bond with someone is to put yourself through what they go through. If you found some way to train yourself alongside your pokemon, you might find it easier to relate to them."

Madeleine perked up a bit. "Is that how you got so strong?" She asked.

"I didn't grow up with these guys, but yeah. I've been able to go against powerful pokemon myself for years." Riley said. "Well… I have about a day's trip ahead of me right now."

"Oh!" The girl exclaimed, "I didn't mean to keep you!"

"No worries," Riley smiled nicely at her. "Just know that your pokemon need to be treated just as well as a human in all counts, and you should be just fine."

Madeleine realized as the boy started to leave that she had no idea who this guy was. She was about to call out, but the pokemon he had with him jumped up and followed him from where they had been resting, eager to continue on.

Riley looked back to see the girl trying to have a discussion with her pokemon. "She'll get there." He murmured, walking on.

"So!" Amber exclaimed loudly from Riley's left shoulder "Who's up for the **next** near death experience?"

"I seem to be behind on my near death experience quota." Kazekai joked in return.

"And hopefully, it'll stay that way." Kurenai murmured.

"At least somebody over there's sane." Gauge muttered from Riley's right. Amber and the other pokemon who had spoken were on that side.

"Yeah…" Scarlet muttered from Riley's right shoulder. Kazekai turned his eyes on Riley again, still learning about him. The male absol had just been basically brought up to speed on even more things in detail. Riley met his eyes evenly, calmly. Kazekai kept thinking, over and over, that the boy's refusal to flinch when he saw Kazekai's messed up eyes with that black slash of darkness in each one was a clear sign that the boy wouldn't do anything like judge him unfairly.

It was a fear that kept reemerging. He knew how powerful the boy was. He had gotten himself flipped by the horn by the boy's staff almost effortlessly, back when Kazekai wanted to tear his throat out. The absol shuddered and looked away, causing Riley to frown, but there was not much else the boy could do and he knew it.

And so they walked for hours like that. Aimless banter, pointless squabbles and unprecedented bursts of laughter. Through most of it, Kazekai simply stayed near his sister, occasionally throwing in a joke... And little else.

Kurenai gave her brother a warm smile again, as she kept doing over and over, refusing to display her worry just yet. She was aware that Kazekai was simply growing used to this, this different time and place. He was fully aware that eventually, he would get there,and Kurenai was confident that he would be just fine.

She could not be prouder that every last one of the team had no visible reaction to seeing Kazekai's eyes with the dark slashes of color through the pupils. The fact that they didn't flinch showed their compassion for her brother, their understanding of what he went through for years.

She brushed against him, and he immediately playfully pushed at her right back.

Gauge raised a brow as the two started to act like kits, but recognized that the two of them had not seen each other since they were kits in the first place. Probably best to let them play around and have fun for a while.

Silently walking alongside the group, Gauge kept an eye out for things that they might want to notice, such as potential enemies, other routes, or signs of civilization.

The path slowly grew wider as they began to near their destination. Vermillion city should be very close, although Gauge noted the only building they were passing looked decidedly run down.

Riley and Gauge halted in front of it as they started to pass, feeling the ground shudder under their feet. This was accompanied by a large sound emanating from the building itself. Everyone blinked a few times, quiet.

"...I suppose we'd better figure out what's destroying that place." Riley muttered, tapping the badge holder on his belt. His friends nodded without much hesitation at all and started walking towards the building. Gauge scanned the inside. There were a lot of people in there, and they seemed not to be too shocked at what had just happened based on their movements. He eyed the wooden object underneath the door, which was face down. That had likely been the sign.

"I think that it happens here a lot." Gauge spoke up as he looked over those two things.

"Still, we had better go in." Riley muttered, "If there's a lot of people in there, that building could collapse on them."

"And add us to the mix. Fantastic. I always wondered what it felt like to be crushed by a falling roof." Amber muttered, blasting the top off of Scarlet's sarcasm meter.

"Riley'll find some way to survive a building collapsing on him," Scarlet assured the group.

"What about us?" Kazekai asked.

"...I'll get back to you on that." Scarlet decided.

Riley pushed through the doors swiftly, stepping inside the building. Tables and chairs were everywhere, and people seemed to be… fighting? This was the least orderly human place he had **ever** seen. What the hell is this place?" Riley asked quietly.

"It's a bar, dummy." Amber shot back "Humans come here to do dumb things like drink some weird liquid that makes them do weird or crazy things. Pretty sure the stuff itself tastes awful, anyways. Idiotic humans."

"You of all people don't get to comment, Little Miss Breadstick," Riley argued. Amber flinched as she had no argument to give for that.

"Oof…" Scarlet muttered.

"Rude, but effective," Kurenai said as she strode forward.

"Look alive." Gauge growled.

The place had quieted at the boy's entrance except for the argument up front. "You tell me where this man is **right now**." A female voice caught Riley's attention. "Here's how this works, asshole. I walk in here, like I always do, show you a picture, and you tell me where he is because I **know** you know."

Riley walked towards the girl from behind quietly, wondering if he would have to get involved. She wore a cloak that reached the floor, and it seemed to have colors of the earth, the brown of dirt and the gray of stone. With one hand that Riley could see, she held the bartender by the collar of his shirt from across the counter.

"Okay, okay!" The man exclaimed, "Just having a little fun."

The brunette, with her face still to Riley's back, growled and dropped the man. "Go on." She ordered.

"He's hard to keep track of, because he keeps teleporting around, but last I checked with Trevanant, he was in the forest northeast of Vermillion." The man said. "We haven't got a read on him recently."

"...Fine," she grumbled, tossing some cash on the bar.

" _We were just in that forest."_ Kurenai realized. " _And the only one that teleports around is…"_

"I'll be off." She informed the man, and whirled. Kurenai couldn't follow it, because she was thinking. Gauge couldn't follow it, because it was too fast. Kazekai and the rest didn't have a hope of following it.

 **CLANG!**

Riley's staff was up near his and Scarlet's heads. Against it was the brown bar of a staff. About the girl's height, the weapon had a sphere on the end that looked like a misshapen boulder, with a glowing golden ring of letters around the boulder. Riley noted her expert stance and grip on her weapon, and the fact that it was a staff. Riley had been able to follow the movements. He had blocked the strike.

Riley then blinked. And stared. The girl's slightly wavy brown hair settled on her back, and her clothes were nothing short of clothes fit for a warrior, tight and black-colored, like obsidian. The clothes had many pockets on them, and many tools on her belt. And then, the zipper on the shirt was partly open, revealing more of the mocha-colored skin that she had. Her piercing brown eyes completed the earthen image.

But Amber realized why the boy was just staring at her. She sighed in exasperation. "Girls left and right, and the one that attacks him is the one that catches his attention immediately. Are you **serious**?"

Neither human heard the comment, although Kurenai and Gauge facepawed in unison, and Scarlet simply hopped off of Riley's shoulder and started walking over to the clueless Kazekai.

"..." both humans said nothing for entirely different reasons. The girl shifted her earthen cloak and slowly drew her staff away, resting it upon the ground. Riley's grip on his staff loosened enough for him to twirl it between his fingers before neatly slotting it into its sheath without taking his eyes off of the girl.

Finally, he snapped out of it. "I heard a disturbance in here." He said. "Considering the damage on the outside of the building, I came in to make certain there was no danger."

"The inside's much tougher than the outside, kid!" The irritated bartender told him. "Now, git!"

Riley glared at the man, but the girl stepped past him on her way out, grabbing the back of his shirt with her free hand as she did, literally dragging him out of the building. Riley managed to get himself out of the grip after they were outside, and crossed his arms.

"What do you want?" The girl asked.

Riley shrugged. "An introduction would be nice." He muttered "I go in, and you're threatening the guy, and then you attack me. But you're searching for a guy that was just in a place that **we** were just in."

The girl stilled. "Did you see this man?" She asked, holding up a **very** familiar picture. "I have taken it upon myself to take him down."

Kazekai growled at the sight of the man, and Kurenai stepped closer to her brother to comfort him. Mesa looked at the absol, seeing his dark marks. "...I see." She nodded "The man must have been severely overestimated by the people I talk to."

"He ultimately escaped," Riley said, and then looked away with a hurt expression. "I couldn't save all of the pokemon in his grasp. Only Kazekai."

"Dammit, we keep telling you to stop beating yourself up. We wouldn't have had a problem if the sigilyph hadn't already been an evil son of a-"

 **Boom**.

The girl had slammed her staff into the ground. "He teleported away." She said.

"Yeah." Riley nodded. "I broke the ball his sigilyph was in, but the sigilyph seemed to be… To be completely content with the man. They both escaped. I had no idea that that pokemon was so… so…

"Didn't occur to you that a pokemon could be just as bad as a human?" Amber filled in.

"...Yeah." Riley nodded solemnly, rubbing Amber between the ears. The girl blinked as she looked between the two. Riley stepped forward, extending his hand. "My name's Riley." He got out, having a hard time tearing his eyes from her face.

She gripped his hand powerfully, and Riley returned the strength of the handshake. "Mesa," she said shortly.

"Nice name." Riley muttered, and Mesa watched, bemused, as Amber slapped him across the face afterwards. "Alright, that's it. C'mere." Riley growled, grabbing the eevee and pulled her into a crushing hug that the eevee could not have hoped to escape.

"Owowoowowowww!" Amber wailed extra dramatically, and turned pleading eevee eyes on the girl Mesa, hoping to get the girl's sympathy. Mesa looked completely unwilling to assist the eevee who had **totally** asked for it.

"If I may," Mesa began as Amber continued struggling. "You are the first to ever successfully block my first strike. Would you be willing to test your skill against mine? My father told me I would eventually meet a worthy opponent."

Riley looked up at the girl, and shrugged. "Okay, one moment." He said, keeping Amber from struggling. Amber, having given up on tricking compassion out of Mesa, had turned pleading eyes on Kazekai. Kazekai fell for it, trying to intervene. "Riley, I think she's had enough." He said, only for Kurenai to whisper the truth in his ear.

Riley dropped her anyways, watching the eevee go over and thank the bewildered Kazekai, who tried to comprehend the conflicting messages he was getting. "Considering I've fought for my life every other day recently, my hand keeps twitching for my staff anyways." Riley said, drawing the weapon. "It's been nuts lately."

Riley gave her a smile. "What do you do, then?" He asked.

"You're a member of the police." Mesa noted, slowly walking to Riley's left as Riley started moving to his right. They began circling each other as the pokemon cleared out. "And obviously a trainer, which is odd enough considering. As for me, my job is completely unofficial. I get the job done before the police can, how I want to, and let them find the job done later."

"I'm no trainer." Riley refuted. "I use the pokeballs so that the pokemon I keep around don't have to fear being captured by other trainers. The pokeballs that otherwise work for these guys I send off to be placed somewhere where they can never be found."

Mesa nodded. "Clever." She admitted.

"Just as clever as doing the police's job without being a part of it." Riley nodded as well. "I should have thought of that."

"And now rules are an issue for you."

"Not as much as one might think." Riley disagreed. "I'm not forced into some weird uniform and told to carry a gun around. All I need is my staff."

"Fair enough." Mesa nodded. "Shall we begin?"

Riley smiled. "At your leisure." He replied.

She brought her leg up and stomped into the ground. Immediately, the earth shook under everybody's feet, and a cube of compacted earth immediately burst from the ground in front of her. Riley's eyes widened. To just move the earth with little effort…

She then slammed the dirt with her staff in a spiraling motion, making it fly at intense speed towards Riley, who front flipped over it on reflex alone. "Whoa," he muttered, getting to his feet. "Alright."

Mesa slammed her foot into the ground at a sideways angle, and the earth underneath Riley's feet began shifting in that direction, causing the boy to corkscrew away. "Nice trick," Riley muttered, and to Mesa's surprise, he blurred out of her view extremely fast. Feeling a presence behind her, the girl ducked a powerful strike over her head right afterward.

She narrowed her eyes and slammed her staff into the ground once to make the earth rumble and quake under her and everyone else. Riley had to get away and adopt a stance that would keep him from stumbling, giving Mesa the opportunity she wanted. She spun, pointing the foot-diameter boulder end at the boy. A burst of magic energy preceded a much larger boulder materializing and rushing Riley at top speed. It crashed into the ground and then rolled far past the spot and crashed into some trees, knocking them over with ease.

Mesa put her staff in a seeming resting position. "Riley!" Kurenai exclaimed.

Mesa's thin end of her staff rotated to cover her back, which was immediately struck. Riley's grip was strong, the jarring from having his powerful strike deflected meant little to him. "Nice," Riley said.

Mesa turned, spinning her own staff just as effortlessly as Riley spun his. His was shorter, but made of what looked to Mesa like enchanted vibranium. Not that her staff would break against it, but his fighting styles were far more varied than hers could be. Nevertheless, the earth was her friend.

Mesa got into a fighting stance identical to Riley's as they faced off. Riley frowned at the sight. However, he wasn't intending to lose this, even if Mesa's hair and face kept distracting him. He'd lost a lot of fights recently.

Mesa saw the look in his eye, and her eyes narrowed. He moved faster than anything she had seen, but the way he did it was very odd. Her father had described something like this, she remembered. The way that the consequences of moving at that speed seemed not to apply to him…

His staff smashed against hers at mach speeds as she used the length of her staff to her advantage. Recognizing immediately that she had to keep her distance, she slammed the earth and erupted upwards on a pillar of stone, setting her staff between her side and arm and began firing boulders at a rapid pace. Even up here, as long as she contacted the ground, she could attack using the ground.

Rather than watching her movements, Riley felt the ground rumble and knew to move out of the way as spikes of rock and bursts of earth came from the ground to hurt or otherwise launch him. Mesa was making a mess of the path, but she was not hitting him with either the boulders or the earth itself. When Riley started using the stones to propel himself upwards, Mesa had to pause what she was doing to block his strike with her staff and get him back down to the earth level.

Mesa frowned. This was not much of a battle on her part. She was basically keeping the high ground. A game of king of the hill where her opponent didn't care much about getting to the top of the hill.

Mesa channeled her power and struck the ground hard, using an earthquake attack. Her pillar shattered and started to fall in pieces while everything else destabilized underneath the quake. Mesa landed upon the ground. She knew of the guy's habit of striking from behind with his superior speed. Strengthening her stance, she spun and swung the heavy end of her staff.

Everything stilled. Mesa's boulder end of her staff could be seen at the side of Riley's head, and his staff was hovering at the side of Mesa's head. If either had finished their strikes, the other would have been defeated. If both had struck, both would be defeated.

And a deep respect for the boy flickered to life within Mesa. the girl met the boy's eyes, seeing them soften as they looked at her. She'd seen his pokemon facepaw, which made more sense to her now. Both of the teenagers drew back into more casual positions, putting their weapons. Away.

"Intense, but not fast." Riley pointed out.

"Fast, but more fragile than myself." Mesa countered.

Both grinned and clasped their hands together in a handshake once more.

Riley's eyes wouldn't leave her when he spoke. "Where are you going to go?" He asked her, attempting to stay casual. Mesa did not dust herself off as Riley began doing.

"Nowhere in particular." She said in response.

"Well…" Riley murmured, rubbing his head and breaking eye contact. "You, ah, could come along with us. You're really tough, and maybe we won't nearly die the next time some ridiculous nonsense happens…" he tried to continue, finding little else to say. Anything but the biggest reason, which he was struggling to define easily.

"You're not the best at talking to girls," Mesa noted bluntly.

Riley stared at her, bewildered, as if he wasn't even trying to think. She rolled her eyes. "Might as well." She said with a shrug "Dad's always going on about traveling with **somebody**. And a guy who can actually pull his own weight? Who am I to refuse?"

"Great!" Riley clapped his hands together, finding his composure again. He hoped he'd get used to the girl's presence. She was messing with his head just by being around, but not in a bad way.

 **Wham!**

Everyone gasped. Kurenai and Kazekai tried to charge forward, but Gauge stopped them with a paw. Riley gaped, holding his stomach as much as he could.

Mesa withdrew her fist. "Your head a little clearer?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. The boy nodded weakly.

"You punch really, really hard…" He muttered, standing up straight and recovering faster than Mesa thought he might. He really was tough. That punch should have knocked him out if he was anywhere near normal. "Like getting slammed by a boulder-oooohhhh…"

"Now you're getting it." Mesa turned from him, her earthen cloak billowing behind her as she walked. "What was our destination again?"

* * *

"I don't like her." Scarlet whispered to Riley.

"She's fine," Riley said quickly. For the third time. "She knew it wouldn't hurt me much."

"She **hit** you." Scarlet tried.

"Sucker punched you." Amber agreed, though she was smiling. " **I** like her."

" _Course she does... "_ the rest of the pokemon thought.

"That was really rude." Kurenai murmured, gesturing to Mesa.

Mesa heard these comments and did not react to them, walking quickly. Riley walked evenly with her, noting that she kept the same kind of pace that they typically kept. She was used to traveling, it seemed, if they used a similar pace considering the distance between them and the town. "So…" Riley began uncertainly. "Who are you, then?"

"As a person?" She asked. When he nodded, she looked ahead down the path. "When I was a little girl, I got lost. I found myself in a mountain range somewhere, and found someplace… Odd. At least, that's what my father told me."

"He was there with you?" Riley asked.

"Not at that point. I don't have any biological family to raise me." Mesa shrugged. "It never really mattered to me. Because after I fell into a crater of sorts, and tumbled for a bit, I came face to face with a magma pit. I learned years later that it was too high in the earth's crust for magma, but as a kid, it didn't really matter. And then my father showed up, or rather, my adoptive father."

"Weird place to be hanging around," Amber muttered.

"I was raised by Groudon since I was five," Mesa explained. Riley halted and stared at her. Things fell into place really quickly, but a question rose in his mind.

"...Why are you just telling me this out of the blue?" He asked cautiously. "I mean, I asked, but most people keep their stories a little hidden away."

"It's not like anybody can use it against me." She pointed out. "Much like your relation to Dialga."

Riley froze. "H-how do you know about that?" He stammered.

"Your abilities." Mesa sad "You made it pretty clear what your powers were."

Riley blinked. "What on earth do you mean 'powers'?" He asked.

Silence.

"..." Mesa looked at him analytically.

 **Smack!** Amber facepawed.

"...I mean, I only met Dialga right before he sent me off on a journey and stuff. Metagross was the one who raised me and all." Riley elaborated, rubbing the back of his head. "He trained me to fight. So what if I'm faster? I trained to be that way. I'm sure most humans would be able to get as fast as I am with proper training…"

He dropped his hand. "...Right?"

"...No, not right." Mesa sighed. "Are you trying to tell me that you've been playing with time all this time, and not once have you actually **noticed**?"

"Uh…" Riley muttered, looking at himself. "What do you mean? I just-..."

Mesa took her turn to facepalm. "Dialga's not exactly going on my list of top ten father figures…" she muttered almost to herself. Before Riley could say anything, she continued. "Anyways, Groudon bonded me to his drought stone, and I have had his powers and abilities since, growing up with him caring for me."

"Hold up!" Riley exclaimed desperately, having stopped to listen to Mesa finish her rather short story. "What the heck are you talking about with time and everything? Wouldn't I notice if I were controlling time? At all?"

"Not if you spent your whole life with that ability, and were never told any different," Mesa said, crossing her arms. "You said a metagross taught you? About everything **except** for your abilities? Why on earth would he not do that?"

"If she's the earth lady, shouldn't she know what happens on earth?" Kazekai joked. Everybody took the time to groan.

"How should I know? He wasn't exactly conservative with his tests at all." Riley said, tapping his foot. "Had a test revolving around asking an injured riolu to heal me, and I was supposed to recognize that the riolu was already low on energy. I did, he told me that was a test, and I got pissed off. That was right before I got to see Dialga, actually. Metagross seemed kind of worried for a bit after that."

"You gave Dialga a little lip?" Mesa asked, smirking. "Good. Deities need a stern talking-to every once in a while."

"He seemed kind of impressed when I did." Riley nodded "I think we could qualify as friends, at least. But… You said Groudon bonded you to a drought stone, and Xerneas bonded Matt to a jewel of life… That leaves me nowhere. I wasn't bonded to anything… I don't remember being given anything to give me powers."

Mesa frowned at that. "Then it is likely you simply forgot." She shrugged "Because you had to have. You don't have to deal with the consequences of actually moving fast, such as skidding or drifting around, as you should have had to do moving that fast."

"..Skidding? Doesn't that only happen when people get thrown?" Riley asked, blinking.

"No."

Riley looked utterly incomprehensive. Mesa sighed and gripped his shoulder, pulling him to get him moving in the right direction again. "Look. You're just like me and this Matt person." She said "And I **cannot** believe nobody's told you yet! You lived around Dialga and a knowledgeable metagross, and you're **eighteen**. How on earth did nobody even mentioned your temporal powers?"

"Well…" Riley muttered, "I guess I ran off on Xerneas when I realized I was late to get to Vermillion, which I still am, but still, she seemed to not have been totally done talking to me."

"...You dip…" Mesa muttered.

"I can't exactly disagree with that." Kurenai murmured.

" **You** lot aren't exactly in any position to criticize anything either." Mesa pointed at the absol. "You've obviously been with him for a while, and you didn't see it at all?"

"Well…" I kinda assumed he knew for a while." Scarlet said.

"So did I." Amber nodded "It was when he kept asking whether regular humans could do something that it became clear that he didn't know a thing. And then I didn't say anything at all, because… Reasons."

Mesa's eye twitched. "'Because reasons'?" She asked incredulously.

"I think she just forgot." Gauge offered "I did. So did everybody else. No real excuse other than the fact that we were almost just tortured and murdered by a bloodthirsty sadistic demon gem thing that controlled people's minds."

"That's a good point." Amber said, shivering "That Dizzy thing was terrifying. It's no wonder we just kind of glanced over it."

Mesa blinked. "There have been reports of that creature…" she muttered "And you people survived the encounter? How?"

"By making sure that Dizzy **didn't** ," Riley growled fiercely, suddenly feeling a burst of anger as he recalled that day, far too few days ago.

Mesa was silent as she continued walking. She had just straight-up told this kid and his pokemon every general thing about her. And that was after getting an impromptu invitation to join them on their journey, which had reminded her of what her father had said. But was barging in such a good idea? She had confused the child of time greatly, and now he seemed angry at a memory, and with her strong arm tactics in talking to the others, at least the female absol seemed to be feeling bad about it.

"...You all deserve my apologies." She said. Everybody looked at her in surprise. "This is a new experience for me, in my defense, but my surprise that Riley here did not know of his ability was no excuse to be frustrated with the rest of you. Kurenai, was it?"

"Uh… Yeah."

"Please do not dwell on my accusations." Mesa requested.

"Alright, this is just getting weird," Amber muttered. Riley nodded in agreement.

"I don't know what's happening at all," Kazekai muttered.

"...Okay, Mesa." Kurenai nodded, smiling. Mesa blinked. Forgiven so easily? "Why wouldn't I forgive you? I mean, you were pretty startled by everything that we told you. And we've got more things that you would be surprised at. I can't expect everybody to act the same."

"..." Mesa relaxed somewhat. "You are kinder to me than I feel I deserve, considering I have known all of you for little more than an hour and have already taken charge in a sense."

"Oh, you haven't." Amber shook her head. "Riley's always in charge. Sorry, lady, but you're down on your life-saving quota in my eyes. Riley here's been saving pokemon, including us, and humans, including Yellow, and himself over and over and over again because the moron won't stop nearly dying."

"Gee, thanks for the support," Riley muttered. And suddenly, all around Mesa, the pokemon were laughing or chuckling. Mesa realized with a jolt that not much would faze these pokemon and this human very much anymore. " _Should I be joking around with them?"_ She wondered. She looked to the earth, wishing her father had taught her the basics of humor in this situation and not the situation at home. Of course, she knew how to make jokes, but… Not with these people. They would laugh at different things.

Mesa straightened as much as she could. "Well, thank you for allowing me to join you." She said to them. "Perhaps over time, I will learn how to have discussions with you much as you do yourselves."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Riley said cheerfully. "Just fine. Just try your best, and if people look at you weirdly, you messed up. People will probably forgive you for that, as long as it wasn't too insulting."

"Much like home, although I cannot know what references to make light of because I was not there for them." Mesa explained. "It was easy enough to joke around with father and Heatran as well, and with the pokemon that lived around me. However…"

"I am in much the same position as you." Kazekai spoke up. Mesa looked at him evenly, and he explained. "I just escaped from a man who was forcing me to feel nothing but hatred and rage towards everything, and then I wake up, and my sister's standing above me. And after that, I'm walking along with everyone here and they're joking around and I can't just join in because I don't know what I'm talking about."

"I see." Mesa nodded.

"Okay, okay." Riley stepped up. "Step one of being social. Big words and official tones are for important conversations."

"..." Mesa looked at him oddly.

"..." Riley realized that Mesa was giving him her own weird look, and shut up immediately. "Gotcha." He said "Not fantastic humor value. Got it."

"Town's coming up." Gauge said gruffly.

Mesa smirked at Riley. "You said you took out that 'Dizzy' thing." She said.

"Killed it dead." Riley nodded, holding up his scarred hand. "Hand's a bit slow, and some of these guys got some scarring when it… Made them hurt each other to see the blood, but we all survived."

Mesa punched him in the shoulder. " **I** wanted to kill that thing you goof!" She exclaimed with a grin while Riley toppled to the ground from the high-powered punch.

"Look at that," Riley said from the ground on his back. "I won something."

"It's gonna be one of **those** relationships." Amber muttered far too quietly for the others to hear. " _Yellow's gonna be_ _ **pissed**_ _. Oh well, not like Riley and Yellow were getting along fantastically in the first place."_

* * *

A boy stood alone on a rocky outcropping overlooking a small village. He bore entirely silver clothing, and had silver hair and eyes as well. His t-shirt and long, billowing plants moved in the wind, as did the long silver cape at his shoulders.

His gaze was soft as it looked down on the many people below as they went about their daily lives. He brought his finger up and traced it through the air, outlining the nearly insignificant town. "So often, we take sudden and unprecedented incidents for granted, when they could mean life or death for some." He whispered.

He looked up the mountain, away from the village below. It's peak rose above everything else. "For a place so important to be so far away… Will we have to help bring those kids here?"

"I'd say so." A voice said to his right. He turned to see a girl in yellow and black clothing with seemingly weightless ribbons flowing from her shoulders that crackled with energy flowing behind her.

"Ah, Brenda." The boy replied.

"Hey, Kai." Brenda greeted him. "I thought you already did this."

"I have a while until it's relevant" 'Kai' pointed out, looking up the mountain once more. "Plenty of time to think everything through."

"Do you think we can do it ourselves?" Brenda asked, now right next to him.

"...Not without risk."

"There's risk in them doing it too," Brenda argued, walking into his line of sight. She took him by the shoulder. "Kaigetsu, you know that it's impossible for everything to be perfect."

"I do, Brenda." Kaigetsu sighed. "Believe me, I know. I know that very well. However… To not constantly try and find better solutions…"

"When something bad happens, it is harder to justify your own decisions if you did not put all of your effort into it." Brenda nodded. "I understand perfectly. But tell me, Kai… What makes this world different? We typically do what we must to change the future, and depart knowing that we made something better without removing the gift of choice from the sentient population."

"You know why. A massive number of important people and things are a direct result of a certain wave of influence. You know which."

"They are very similar…" Brenda nodded, looking into the distance. "Why… Here? I don't understand why a man who built everything he ever needed in Kanto would come **here**."

"Why isn't important." Kaigetsu murmured "And normally I would say differently, but not here. Not now. All that is important is that there is more at stake right now, and the man seems to want the sky itself to bear witness to his demonstration."

"It's one more universe, Kai." she said softly.

"We have a responsibility." Kaigetsu said, turning to the blonde girl. "We interfered enough to save hundreds of lives already, all things considered. And because we did that, because we made that choice, we are responsible for its future. The timeline writhes and twists, spinning itself like a ball of thread. The future hangs in the balance of a group of children… And I am to blame."

Brenda closed her eyes, feeling the wind shift their clothing and hair in multiple directions at once, madly whistling by the mountainside. "We are to blame." She corrected. "And… If we hadn't interfered? Can you understand how much of a horror story this would have turned out to be?"

Kaigetsu nodded. "We will need to speak to them soon enough." He said somberly. "We will need to explain things to them, to help guide them."

"This is what I can't understand again." Brenda gripped the silver boy by his shoulder. "The chances of failure based on our own ineptitude are tiny. Like, really tiny. Why can't we take a risk and guarantee a happy ending for everybody?"

"Because if that tiny chance of failure happens… We could annihilate everything in one go." Kaigetsu replied "And we have no right to risk the lives of others, no matter how low that risk is. We can't guarantee that we won't accidentally destroy the universe."

"..." Brenda looked out over the town. "...Why didn't we just walk away from those crystals, Kai?"

"Because we were foolish teenage mortals once," Kaigetsu responded grimly, sighing. "And that is what foolish teenage mortals tend to do."

Brenda sighed along with him. "And what of these guys?" She asked, swirling her hand to create an opening in the air, crackling with energy. It showed Riley, Mesa and the rest of them. "The last time I saw a girl pulled into a group of heroes so quickly was when Toothless snatched Astrid into the air. Never mind the massive universe gap."

"She needed some form of companionship," Kaigetsu replied without looking. "Her adoptive father told her as much, but she never met one of her fellow children of the gods. Until now."

"Kaigetsu, what are you thinking?" Brenda asked slowly, recognized the boy's tone.

"That there is going to be some unnecessary drama soon enough, considering this new quick development." He replied calmly.

"...May I ask something entirely different?"

"Of course."

"Why were you tracing the village down there with your finger?"

Kaigetsu smiled. "Just some protection for the people at ground zero." He said softly. The word 'ground zero' echoed through the air as the boy closed his eyes. He willed himself backwards in time, falling straight through time and landing lightly on his feet on a dark metal surface.

" **Kaigetsu**." A deep rumbling voice rose behind him.

"Hey, Dialga." The boy replied, turning. "Did I land in the right time?"

Dialga blinked.

"Just joking." Kaigetsu acknowledged, knowing exactly when he was. "Listen, and this is pretty important. I need you and Groudon to start talking and such. Things are going to be complicated eventually."

Dialga bowed his head. " **I will, my old friend**." He rumbled. " **Did you have much else to talk about**?"

Kaigetsu smiled. "You know me so well." He sat down on the ledge at the edge of the tower. He glanced down, witnessing as far away, an orange haired boy speaking with a dratini. "I'm protecting the world from paradoxes my way." Kaigetsu continued "There is no danger from my being here."

" **That is very much a bonus** ," Dialga said a bit drily.

"I just wanted to go through some important things for the future." Kaigetsu explained quietly "I am afraid this is hardly a social call."

* * *

"Pariah turned out to be weaker than I imagined." A familiar man sat behind his computer. He spoke calmly as he moved diagrams together on the screen. "Ember?"

"Yes, sir?" Ember replied, straightening.

"Is it complete?"

"My work is nearly finished, going by the blueprints you gave me. With all due respect sir, you knew that." Ember replied tiredly.

"I also knew that Pariah would lose." The man agreed.

"X-"

"Do not use my name." The man growled fiercely. Ember flinched. The man settled down and drank some of his coffee. "How are those five low level operatives you sent to capture Rainbow Raven?" He asked casually.

Ember recovered from her fright, rolled her eyes, and reached down for one of the cases at her feet she had prepared for this meeting. The woman opened the case and swiveled it to be in the man's line of sight. Five pokeballs glistened in the case. "She didn't even bother using the version of the serum that would allow them to retain their human vocal cords." She said. "In writing, we've got that the 'battle' lasted all of five minutes with the defences and preparations that woman seemed to have."

"We would have lost any highly leveled operatives we sent." The man said "No need to give them time to work on speaking like a human again, no matter how fast they might be able to manage it. Just strap them to somebody's belt and send him off."

"Will do, sir." Ember nodded, pulling another case from under the table. She opened it, showing a small box that looked like a part of something mechanical, with a slot much like a disk drive on one side, although the slot was quite thick. "This part is ready, sir." She announced.

Now the man finally got up from where he gazed at his odd blueprints. He stood and leaned over it, his expression almost like a kid who had gotten exactly what he wanted for christmas. "Wonderful…" he said, looking at the device. "Perfect."

"Sir, if I may," Ember spoke up.

"Yes, Ember?" The man asked in a more agreeable tone.

"It is true that I cannot control the device perfectly yet, but I can send the creatures to a specific location before they lose control. I have wanted payback for quite a while."

The man grinned, the edges of his lips very far up in comparison to a normal grin. "Do as you wish to that group of kids. I just need the one alive."

"Yes sir." Ember nodded, beginning to pack up her things. "Right away."

She turned and began walking from the room, a devilish smirk marring her features. " **Right** away."

* * *

 **Alright, that's a lot of setup. Just so you guys know, Mesa was not impromptu. She was very much planned for the story. However, considering I intended her to show up on the path to Vermillion, and I almost forgot, I panicked a little bit. I hope her introduction wasn't too bad. Yes, she was intended to be very up in front with someone like her. I tried to convey her character properly, and if you guys could tell me whether you like how she was portrayed, that would be fantastic.**

 **The scenes were jumping back and forth a lot here. First, Pariah goes to do some research and immediately finds what he was looking for. On an entirely related note, I have completely modified and edited the REburst concept to do what I wanted it to do, which would be the prompt fusion with a pokemon as long as a distinct level of trust is between them and both human and pokemon are willing to accomplish it. Their minds are joined, and unlike the children of the gods, their hybrid forms will have more human elements than pokemon elements.**

 **And Millicent shows that she's tough! Yay! This, interestingly enough, was also completely intended. Both the Mesa Part and the Millicent parts I feared may have seemed a little rushed... Hopefully, I will not make such a mistake again. My planning skills are better than that, and I know it.**

 **Riley finally, FINALLY learns that he's been messing with time and never knew it. Poor guy. He's still kind of bewildered and is probably going to remain bewildered for a while as he tries to rethink everything he's managed and come to some conclusions.**

 **So please, everyone who reads this, please review and tell me what I should work on and what I have done well here. Thank you.**


	20. Chapter Twenty: Scorched Earth

**Hello, everybody! Hyperjade here.**

 **So... I really need to clean out my documents thing. I discovered, or rather, rediscovered, that there is a maximum amount of documents you can have in the document manager at any time. I did teach myself how to reclaim documents so that I can edit things later, but...**

 **Jango: Disorganized idiot alert!**

 **Me: ...Are you talking about me or you? Or... Amber? Or any of the other disorganized people we know?**

 **Jango: All of the above. Now shut up, I have people to respond to, and you know they love me better than you.**

 **Me: ...**

 **Jango: First up is West of course. Hey West. Alright, first off, Millicent's powerful, yes, but Pariah is also relatively weak for a bad guy so far because of a critical flaw that I'm pretty sure we've seen at this point. Hint: It's one of those fairy tale reasons for a bad guy to lose, and no, it's not love. Yeah, Groudon can earthbend. It's kind of obvious, honestly. He's pretty much the king of the land, after all. Also, Riley's trick is time manipulation, but he needs knowledge of how his power works and training to be able to do more than the tricks he already has. It's always training that's required. Like, story guarantee kind of always.**

 **Me: Calvire, if you want me to give you writing tips, I would like to know specifically what you need help with in a PM, please and thank you. And Darkraidiciple, Mesa's going to be expanded upon a bit here.**

 **Glad that the introductions didn't seem too rushed to you, What Lies Beyond. I'm... Pretty sure I had Pariah return his charizard. I'll have to double check before he fights again.**

 **Jango: Strikes one, two, and three on those guesses though. It's NOT Geosenge, the guy's name's NOT Xerosic, and it's NOT a genosect's cannon. Ooh! Mutt? That's a good on I need to write that down hang on. (Pulls out a notebook and opens it, scratching the word down.) A new addition to my list of things I've been called insultingly. Thank you!**

 **Me: No, Oras is not relating to that abbreviation. I generated it using a translator and a word I wanted to attribute to Riley. And... Frost is coming for vengeance? Or is she attacking...**

 **Jango: Two double team copies popped and destroyed, and she's coming. (Chuckles happily)**

 **Amber: (Opens the door.) Uh, guys? Frost startled me and almost got past me... I kind of overreacted...**

 **Jango: How badly? I mean, after I put those fruits she graciously sent me as bait in traps out there, I didn't see her for a while. Why are you in glaceon form?**

 **Me: ...Amber... How badly did you overreact?**

 **Jango: (Goes to the window) Hey, Hyper. Don't people usually name the larger glaciers out there?**

 **Me: (Puts my face into my hands) Dammit...**

 **Amber: it was an accident!**

 **Me: I know... I know...**

 **Jango: Welp, Hyper's out for the count, so let's see... Oh. Phillip's just pointing out a pluralization error. Oh well. Oh! Idea!**

 **Amber: ...What is it, Jango?**

 **Jango: I came up with a great name for the glacier! 'Frosttrap'!**

 **Amber: ...Just come help me clean up the ice without hurting Frost.**

 **Jango: Fine. I'll send a few double team doubles, 'cus I'm not going anywhere near that girl myself. She's out for my blood now. Remind me to make anti-flying nets around our house.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty: Scorched Earth**

"Vermillion's come and gone," Kurenai said as they walked along the path. Few eventful things had happened. They stopped and bought supplies and foodstuffs, but hadn't spent too much time on the sights. "North to Saffron we go."

"It's not like it'll take long," Amber replied, lying on Riley's head and relaxing there.

"Better not." Gauge grumbled, "We've had enough setbacks."

"Oh, don't say things like that!" Scarlet exclaimed.

"You are going to have a really bad hairstyle when she gets off," Kazekai commented to Riley, totally off topic.

"Yep," Riley confirmed, bringing his hand up to Amber and scratching behind her ear, eliciting a purr from the eevee.

"No wonder she has such an attitude." Mesa muttered, "You coddle her."

"Nah, she was a ball of furry attitude from the day I met her." he replied cheerfully, ignoring the impact of Amber whacking her paw against the bridge of his nose halfheartedly. "And as far as I know, she had already mastered the dangerous art of the puppy eyes."

Mesa smirked at the thought, remembering the time Amber attempted to get **her** sympathy. Silly eevee.

Saffron was honestly only a few days away. They had been walking for half of one such day, and were feeling very, very bored.

"Is this the longest we've gone without nearly dying?" Gauge asked, "I believe this is a new record."

"Maybe. I haven't been keeping track anymore." Amber muttered.

"What?" Riley poked her "You're the one that was supposed to be counting! How are we supposed to know what our record is if you're not counting?"

"Easy. We don't." Amber replied tiredly.

"It seems a tad morbid that you all have been **counting** the days between near-death experiences," Mesa commented.

"I agree." Kazekai agreed.

Scarlet changed the topic, poking at Amber. "That position can't possibly be comfortable," she muttered.

"Well, it is."

Scarlet put a intrigued expression on her face. "Really?" she asked, and then smirked. The pichu leapt up and dropped on her back onto Amber's back, also now resting lazily on Riley's head.

Kurenai giggled and Kazekai chuckled at the shenanigans being presented. The stack of pokemon on top of Riley's head looked like they were in the process of dozing off, and everybody was now laughing at the two of them.

"You'd totally join them if you thought you could get away with it." Kazekai accused his sister with a smile. She met his marked eyes and smiled back.

"Maybe. At least I'm not that heavy," she said in response, continuing forward.

"Are you sure about that?" Gauge teased good-naturedly, taken in by the air of humor around them.

Kurenai rounded on him. "What?" she asked.

"I asked if you were sure about that." Gauge repeated himself in an intentionally careless manner. Kurenai squinted her eyes at him to figure out whether he was joking or not. He seemed to be. Joking around like that was new to him, but still.

"I could outmaneuver you any day of the week, bud." she told him, her head held high.

Gauge chuckled. "I don't doubt it," he replied casually. Kurenai suddenly had the urge to pounce on him for his tone, but her eyes widened. She was thinking pretty violent thoughts, and she recognized it. The absol closed her eyes and shook her head violently to clear it. This was why she disliked fighting. Even now she itched to fight again after that last exhilarating battle. She knew she preferred peace. **Knew** it.

"Kurenai, are you all right?" her brother asked, worried. She shook her head, grimacing in response.

"This is what happens when I fight. I find myself wanting to do it again, and it feels horrible." she explained openly "I… Don't like it."

Her brother saw the look on her face and quickly moved to nuzzle her in a brotherly way. "Hey," he said, aware that the rest of the group was watching. "You're **fine**." he assured his sister "You're always going to be fine. We've got two badass human children of legendaries, a flying luxray, a supercharged pichu, an eevee that can evolve and devolve at will. If you don't want to fight, you never have to, and if you want to fight and find it unnatural, well… We'll help you."

His promise echoed in her mind for a while before her lips curved up in a smile. "Okay, brother. Thank you," she said. He grinned in response as his sister calmed herself.

Then Kazekai met Gauge's eyes, an unspoken challenge sparking between them. " _I don't know why you're messing with my sister, but if you wind up hurting her feelings, we're gonna have words,"_ Kazekai thought, not speaking aloud.

Gauge turned away from the male absol and continued moving forward without a word. Kurenai had seen the exchange of course and recognized it for what it was. She sighed to herself and continued forward as well.

"Why is it that every time we're **not** fighting for our lives, getting along is harder?" Riley asked, crossing his arms. "We're all friends here."

"Agreed." Mesa nodded, looking about.

Kurenai looked back and saw that the humans were surreptitiously keeping a constant vigilance around them.

"Great, that's two freaky paranoid humans with superpowers now," Amber muttered, also having noticed this.

"Hush," Riley muttered. "It's only the most reasonable thing **ever** for me to be paranoid."

He turned to Mesa, though, with a quirked eyebrow. "But as far as I know, you haven't fought for your life nearly as much. What's up with you?"

"I'm in the direct vicinity of **you**." the dark skinned girl retorted "I'm just as much in the line of fire as you are."

Riley conceded the point with a nod. "Point." he agreed, keeping his eyes closer to the ground, as he saw that Mesa had her eyes to the sky. "...So, Mesa…"

"Yes?"

"How was life with Groudon?"

Mesa tilted her head in thought. "Groudon is… Massive." she started "bigger than most other pokemon, so he completely towered over me."

She suddenly seemed kind of uncomfortable. "Even so, we did a lot of things that a father and daughter would do together. When I was younger, he would spend time teaching me how to do things like using my abilities, but he would also spend time with things like… Letting me rest on top of his head while he stepped outside, which meant I was really high above the ground. He walked around for several days and nights."

Riley smiled. "He sounds pretty good."

"He does." Mesa nodded. "Rayquaza then showed up a few days later and told dad off for stomping around too close to a human settlement and causing small earthquakes, reporting that the humans were panicking because they thought that dad was about to rampage through their city."

"...Oh."

"So dad grumbled a bit and turned around and we started the trip home." Mesa shrugged. "Rayquaza's not the nicest guy openly, but he does care about people. Dad told me about the time he lost his temper with Kyogre, and Rayquaza had to go beat the snot out of the both of them so they wouldn't keep messing with the weather. I've met the kid who's his ward, though. Zephyr."

"Zephyr?"

"Yeah. He's only about half my age right now, not exactly the fighting type." Mesa nodded. "Says his dad named him after someone important, but didn't go into too much detail."

"Nice." Riley nodded.

"He does already know how to fly about just as well as Rayquaza does; He's been flying for most of his life. He has to use his morphed form, though."

Riley blinked. "Like Matt's? I thought Matt had that trick from some sort of magic shenanigans."

Mesa grumbled and punched his shoulder lightly. "Idiot. All the children of the gods can do that," she said. "You included."

"Whoa, what now?" Riley asked, looking at Mesa. " **What**!?"

Mesa looked at him weirdly. "You **have** to know about that, at least, right?" she asked "No? Nothing? This is getting ridiculous now. Well, Child of Time, it's about time we fix that." she stopped and turned Riley around by the shoulder to face her.

"Uh…?"

"Close your eyes. If you've never done this before, you're going to have to learn how. You have to sense the core of your power inside of your body and draw it outwards using your mind."

"O-okay?" Riley closed his eyes, attempting to sense energy in his body. He had always had latent power there; he thought most humans had that power. But now as he looked at it, he forced himself to believe that it was unique, that the energy in his body was not shared by those around him. It was a strange thought, but the energy responded to his mental stimuli just the same. He told it to expand, to start coming forth.

How he was able to tell, he was uncertain, but he could tell that it was growing in his chest, building there. His power started to build on itself, becoming more accessible to him, and Riley felt his energy spike, feeling more empowered now.

But then, a pain started. He yelped and wrapped his chest in his arms, holding his chest where the energy had grown, feeling a very sharp pain right there. His energy retreated quickly as he lost all concentration, The boy stumbled, and Mesa caught him before he could become unbalanced enough to dislodge the stack of pokemon on his head.

"That's not good," she said, putting a slightly red-faced Riley back on his feet. He had been slammed into her chest after all when she caught him, not that Mesa noticed. "That's really not good."

"...What is it?" Riley asked after he regained his composure.

"You haven't taken your empowered form even once in your whole life, it seems. And this may be purely speculation, but I suspect that your body is rejecting the large surge of energy you feel when you shift because you're supposed to have gotten used to it right away."

"Well that sucks," Amber muttered, Scarlet and herself shifting down to his shoulders once more.

Riley frowned. "How am I supposed to do this then?"

Mesa scowled. "You would have to power through it," she told him. Everyone else winced, having seen the burst of pain Riley went through just then. Riley, however, gained a determined look. He picked the pokemon off of his shoulders and set them on Mesa's, before concentrating again.

Mesa set herself to catch him while he focused. The energy built up again, empowering him, before the pain started. He grunted and stumbled, but he kept trying to force it through his body and outwards. The pain started spreading from his chest outwards, growing worse if possible.

"Stop." Mesa commanded suddenly, her eyes widening.

Still Riley kept going, ignoring the spots in his vision. " _I can do this_ _ **.**_ " he thought to himself, giving a small shout as he forced the energy to expand further through his arms and legs, trying to fill his entire body with the energy.

Riley blacked out.

* * *

" **Idiot!** " Mesa exclaimed, jerking Riley awake several minutes later. "That was stupid!"

Riley stared at her. He was on the ground, surrounded by worried-looking pokemon and one human, although Mesa seemed more frustrated. "Do you have any self-preservation instincts at all!?" she asked, sounding an awful lot like how Yellow would reprimand him.

Riley groaned, looking at his hands. Nothing. He was still human. "...Sorry," he muttered, trying to get up. Gauge promptly stepped on him with one large paw, the big winged lion-like pokemon keeping him down.

"Rest, you idiot. You seriously drained yourself." Gauge told him. "Somebody get him on my back or something."

Mesa rolled her eyes. "On it," she grumbled, picking Riley up by the back of his shirt collar and unceremoniously draping the boy over the luxray's back. Riley tried to move, but his body was reacting sluggishly, so he gave up and decided that rest may actually be a good idea this time. "I knew he was bad at not putting himself in harm's way, but that sort of determination is going to get him killed."

"I was gonna be fine," Riley grumbled. Mesa rapped on his head a few times with her knuckles, eliciting a complaint from the boy as he struggled to stay awake.

"Gauge, you're on watch duty with Riley out for the count." Mesa instructed, "You can see through the trees anyhow."

"On it." the luxray nodded.

"The rest of you… Keep relaxing I guess as long as we move forward." Mesa said. "If we see trouble, everybody clear out if they can't or do not want to fight."

"Uh… The last time we ditched Riley we got trial by Dizzy." Amber pointed out bluntly.

"And Dizzy is dead and gone," Mesa argued. "Based on one of our conversations earlier, you have not learned to use your abilities in combat and your energy disappears very quickly when you do it as well. Your life would be in grave danger if you attempted to battle as you are now."

"Then I should be **training** , darn it!" Amber exclaimed.

Mesa stilled. "Of course." she nodded, turning. "If you wish, we can do periodic training sessions while we travel."

Her offer got her a placated nod in return, and Scarlet chose to speak up. "I want to help too…" she murmured.

"You injure yourself severely when you attack." Mesa reminded the pichu calmly. "Even if your power skyrockets as a result."

Scarlet looked down, a bit dejected. "I guess my aim is pretty good anyways…" she mumbled Mesa's expression softened at the sight.

"Scarlet, we just want to keep you from hurting yourself," Mesa told her.

"But I don't care anymore!" the pichu shouted "If it helps, why shouldn't I!? The burns always heal!"

Mesa blinked at the outburst. Scarlet, never once backing down as she stood there, glared at the girl. She **needed** to be able to help. "...Very well. You may train as well." Mesa relented, her voice betraying some worry.

Scarlet and Amber smiled before they went back and jumped on Riley, who they were accustomed to riding with. Consequently, they also jumped on Gauge because Gauge was carrying Riley for the moment. "Forget Kurenai, what the heck have you two been eating?" Gauge grumbled, intending it as a joke. Amber, sitting on Riley's back with Scarlet sitting next to her, just glared reproachfully at the luxray.

Riley fully recovered in a minute, getting himself off of Gauge and back to walking while they traveled. Perfectly back to normal as if nothing had happened, Riley continued his conversation with Mesa. "So how many legendaries have kids with their powers alongside them?" he asked.

"Most of them, actually," Mesa informed him. "And they all have different ways of living. Some, like Kyogre's kid, Kyrie, chose to be a pokemon trainer. You're with the police, I've been striking out on my own. Several live with their legendaries, or even with family members that happened to know they changed. Some of them… Disappeared."

"Come again?" Riley asked.

"Poof. Gone." Mesa mock-elaborated. "Yvetal's been searching for his, and Raikou's going nuts trying to find his as well. I haven't seen Ho-oh's kid in a while either, but then I haven't seen Ho-oh himself since ages back, so I don't know if they're still flying around together."

Riley winced. "That sucks," he muttered. "Captured?"

"Possibly. Raikou struck down a few team rocket-owned buildings hoping to find the boy he's been raising. Raikou himself is kind of a jerk normally. The only person I've seen him care for is the kid he was raising."

"...What about the rest?"

Mesa looked up in thought. "Well… I know Palkia's godchild is in the Atria region, also a pokemon trainer. I don't even know if Giratina has a godchild, Arceus **definitely** doesn't have one. Suicune, Raikou's brother, doesn't have one, but their sister, Entei, does. Zapdos didn't bother, Articuno actually chose an adult, a previous member of Kanto's elite four, Moltres… I dunno about Moltres. Moltres vanished a while back, although Articuno keeps visiting him, so he's just… Hiding or something for some reason. Uh… Xerneas' godchild is Matt, Lugia doesn't have one, the lake trio's sticking around Sinnoh, so I don't know about them…."

Mesa turned to Riley now. "That is all I know for certain," she told him. "And I am assuming that Yellow is not one of us."

"Pretty sure the Guardian of Life gave Yellow the ability to heal and to read minds," Amber spoke up. "She mentioned something like that."

Mesa stilled. "Guardians?" she asked. "...I see. Yellow must be very powerful then."

"Actually…" Riley rubbed the back of his neck "She's got the mind reading and healing, but that's it. As far as we know."

"...Alright." Mesa shrugged. "So what's Gauge's story?"

"No memory before being in a lab staged in the power plant." Gauge said frankly "experimented on so I'd wind up huge and heavily muscled with wings. That's basically it."

"...No memory." Mesa repeated.

"None. I bet they removed it before they started experimenting on me." Gauge said, not wanting to continue this particular topic.

Mesa turned to Riley. "And this lab?"

Riley's face contorted into one of anger. "Many victimized pokemon. I took the operation down myself. Gauge was one of the only pokemon that would have had the slightest chance in the wild afterward, though many were set up to get human assistance for the rest of their lives… Multiple cases of amnesia, if I remember that right."

Mesa had grown increasingly disgusted as Riley gave her the run-down version of the bigger picture. Before she could ultimately decide to search out the pictures of every person who had worked on the project, Riley continued: "Most of the workers gave proof that they were mostly there because they were threatened in some way or another, or that they did not know what they were getting into when they signed a contract. The ones who couldn't show that proof were brought in for questioning, but the leader escaped me before I could crush her pathetic skull."

Mesa frowned. "Escaped, hmm?" she asked. Riley attained this downcast look for a bit, reminding the girl of Riley's nasty habit of beating himself up.

"I was beating her badly, and she vanished. She twirled, and unleashed a burst of flame before she had disappeared." Riley explained. "I couldn't hit her in time."

"...That's impossible." Mesa proclaimed.

Riley jabbed his finger at her. "That's what I said!" he exclaimed. "And one of those scientists in the background totally agreed with me!"

"Then Gauge kinda joined us when we let him out of his cage," Scarlet added.

"And I've been caught up in these guys' insane adventures since." Gauge grumbled "Flying out of the way of massive laser beams, sneaking around, etcetera etcetera blah blah blah…"

"How on earth do you do that, anyways?" Mesa asked "Sneak around? You're **huge**."

"Again, wouldn't she know what happens on earth?" Kazekai asked.

Gauge did not respond to Mesa's question at all. Instead, his ears pricked and he gained a confused expression. Mesa looked up immediately.

"...Holy shit what are those?" Kazekai asked, staring upwards as well. Soon everybody was looking up and they saw a **weird** sight. Flying things raced about above, glowing red as they soared.

"I don't know," Mesa replied, and cursed loudly. "We weren't paying attention!"

"At least we broke our 'days without nearly dying record!" Riley exclaimed "Clear out! Get out from directly underneath them!"

The group began sprinting as they heard distorted shrieks above them. They were **definitely** being followed. Mesa pointed her staff away and up and started firing large boulders into the sky at the aggressing creatures.

To her disdain, they had quite the flying skill, weaving around her projectiles. "Everyone prepare yourselves!" she shouted as they drew near.

The whole group skidded to a stop. Riley unsheathed his quarterstaff and spun it into position at his waist, Mesa took her staff into her own fighting position. The rest of the pokemon stayed between them, where it was safe.

They landed, surrounding the group in seconds. Their appearance startled the group. They appeared to be made of bones of different animals. Those of apparently giant birds for their head and forelegs and wings, and the bones of a lion-like creature for the rest of their body.

Those bones were wrapped in layers and layers of glowing magma that swirled around and somehow stayed on the bones instead of dripping off. Only the skulls and the claws and some bone-like plates on their chests were not coated in magma.

They were wrong. Abominations. They should not have been able to fly at all, and yet they did. Those bones should have been obliterated by the magma. They weren't. "...What the hell…" Riley muttered as he watched the creatures.

"What on earth are these things?" Mesa asked as she prepared to manipulate the earth. The creatures shuddered and dripped magma everywhere as they did. The liquid fire hissed as it touched the ground.

One creature stalked forward, slamming it's feet into the ground, it's long, curved foreclaws slamming into the dirt as the ring closed around them. "Everyone, stay back," Riley ordered, waving to the pokemon. "Gauge, if this gets bad, get Scarlet and Amber out of here. Kazekai and Kurenai too if you can, even if it takes you two trips. **Put your safety first**. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." Gauge replied, stepping closer to the smaller pokemon.

"Riley," Mesa said. "Flash fire works with magma. Amber can regenerate her power constantly if she sticks to a flareon form and stays in the lava."

"Good call. Amber, if, **if** you have no other choice, turn into a flareon. It should help your durability, but **do not** draw attention. Scarlet, if you absolutely have to blow it up…" Riley grinned. "Just make sure it's not yourself you're blowing up."

"Got it." Amber nodded.

"I won't blow you guys up either, I promise," Scarlet whispered.

"I'll try to cool them down," Kazekai said, miniature tornados beginning to whip around him.

"I'll protect you if you need help…" Kurenai whispered, "These things don't seem alive at all."

"I'll blast whatever comes our way to smithereens." Gauge threatened, electricity sparking through his fur loudly.

"I've got this half," Riley said. "Mesa?"

"Let me handle most of them," she ordered. "Like Groudon, I am resistant to magma. Obviously not immune, but…"

The beasts suddenly charged. Gauge unleashed his best thunderbolt, shattering the bone structures of two of the beasts and throwing them away. Riley darted in and used his staff to bat the skull off of one of the creatures right away, and all around the clearing attacks started flying. Kazekai's razor wind seemed to slow the creatures down, but only did some damage to the bones themselves.

But just before the entire group was about to be overwhelmed, the earth shook violently, throwing everything, monster, pokemon, and human, to the ground before the earth they stood on lasted upwards like a pillar, bringing them high above the creatures. Mesa stood in the center with her staff embedded in the dirt. She drew it out from the solid ground they stood on and stepped to the edge. She drew her foot around, and the top of their extremely thick pillar that they stood on expanded at the top as the edges jutted out and the pillar shortened slightly. This created more of a platform that gave them even more room.

"Blast everything," Mesa ordered coldly. Kazekai whipped up his razor wind again, glaring at the creatures that dare threaten the people he had come to care about. Gauge and Scarlet lit up with energy as Scarlet charged her first plasma-charge beam, launching it with both paws and obliterating one of the monsters and destroying the wing of another, which spiraled towards the ground even as it began ascending. She whined shortly as she clutched her scorched paws, gritted her teeth and fired a second time.

Mesa pointed her staff and started tearing apart beast after beast with the boulders that seemed quite limitless. The beasts sometimes avoided them, but rock type attacks are quite effective against fire. Even if those fire beasts were not proper pokemon.

"Why are there **more**!?" Kazekai shouted as he slashed the head off of one with his long range razor wind. "Shit! It's still flying!" he exclaimed, looking as the headless beast swooped at him as if it could still see him. Without time to fire another razor wind, he froze up, feeling an emotion that had not plagued him since before he was confined to the dark ball: Fear.

"Kazekai!" Kurenai shouted, drawing her shadow claw. The blade reached far longer than it had any right to be. She slashed the beast into four pieces, and deflected most of the material. Kazekai could only watch as a chunk of bone slammed into her and knocked her away into the center of the pillar. "Guh! I'll be fine!' she exclaimed, "Don't do anything stupid!"

Riley thought this exclamation was intended for him, because he was in the middle of charging a flyer head on. He did not falter, however, leaping and planting his feet on the chestplate of the creature. "Sorry not sorry!" he exclaimed, kicking off while he smashed his staff against the skull of the creature. It shattered, spraying magma everywhere, meaning it was lucky that Riley put his staff in the way and absorbed the magma within it as fire energy. Unfortunately, he landed on his back due to the risky maneuver, and also, unfortunately, he discovered that the creature was still moving without its head.

"Shit!" he exclaimed as the creature planted it's magma-free talon onto his chest, holding him down with astonishing strength.

"Riley! No!" Amber screamed. She charged, the red piece on her tetra element flashing. The flareon tackled the beast hard enough to destabilize it just slightly, allowing Riley to toss it off of him. He grabbed the flareon and rolled away with her in his free arm.

Gauge blasted each one that came near him to pieces, and Scarlet had his back. Scarlet was feeling as if her paws were being torn apart, but she had to keep firing, otherwise someone could **die**.

Mesa was the only one able to reliably get close to the creatures without risking herself. The girl scattered the bones of each one and checked for more. There were always more. "Where the hell are these extra monsters coming from!?" she screamed, realizing she could only destroy so many at a time. The amount of bone creatures were intensifying, the flaming sockets their eyes were comprised of promising death and destruction.

Scarlet saw a beast approaching the flareon, Amber, who was keeping herself in the small pools of magma that were spreading as the beasts were torn apart. She had to do this to prevent running out of energy. The beast's claws outstretched, it lunged to tear Scarlet's best friend to pieces. " **Amber!** " she shrieked, holding out her blackened paw. Everything slowed down. Amber turned to see her vision filled with the unforgiving talons of the beast, eclipsed by the light of the magma running up the forelegs. Her eyes grew wider as they came to rip her to shreds on contact.

" _I've had this death before."_ came to Amber's mind " _In my nightmares."_

Then, flying at an intense speed even with everything seeming so slowed down, Riley shot in, slamming the beast's chest with his staff so hard it was blasted into pieces and away, sailing apart. Unfortunately, the magma's momentum was not so easily changed as the solid bones. Riley was in the air,with nothing to kick off of, and Amber could not hope to move fast enough to block it.

The magma engulfed Riley, knocking him back as he screamed. Amber was frozen for the full second that it took her protector and friend to hit the ground.

And everything sped up again.

" **Riley!** " Kurenai screamed as Amber unfroze and ran to him. Mesa heard the cry, turning and seeing the damaged boy. Her staff obliterated a beast in front of her after she turned, but she was utterly distracted now.

Amber screamed his name as she leaped straight at him. She had to absorb the magma with her body. It was the **only** way. She leapt atop him and her paws removed the magma where they touched, but that place was already badly burned. She rolled across him, freeing the boy's chest of the liquid fire with her pelt and his legs of the magma with her tail, and finally, she launched herself onto his face, her flareon pelt taking the magma away. Her flash fire ability gave her a large amount of energy from the attack, but she did not use it to immediately fight.

Instead, all she could do was stare at Riley's face. It had burns all over it. Not lethal, not even permanent, but horrifying. Without even looking she knew in that instant that some of the burns on his chest, stomach, and legs would likely leave permanent scars, covering perhaps twenty-five percent of the front of his body in different places. She screamed his name as Riley groaned and opened his eyes, seeing her alive and well. He gave a smile. Amber would be all right. Unfortunately, his legs and arms seemed to not be responding properly. Simply keeping himself alive had probably drained every ounce of energy he had.

Dialga was a steel type, after all.

Amber turned as her ears pricked. Yet another identical beast landed on the ground before her and stalked forward like a predator. She glared at it, jumping off of Riley, and a red glow erupted around her body. She screamed, charging forward, her body coated in flame and her speed skyrocketing as she used flare blitz. The strike caused the creature to collapse into broken pieces, enveloping Amber in the magma that remained. That lava started to soak into her until she consciously turned her ability off for a moment, to make sure she could.

And she turned to the next one.

Mesa yelped as her distraction from watching the fallen boy finally caught up to her, and claws scratched at her back. Her earthen cloak provided protection, but not before she felt the impact and was knocked forward onto her chest.

"Gauge…" Riley murmured. "We're going to be overrun."

Gauge bounded to him, zapping a creature that was about to step on Riley. "What do I need to do?" he asked, knowing the boy was right. Mesa was not in a position to fight back and she was about to be struck by the creatures. The others could only attack one at a time, and Kurenai was reluctant to attack anything that did not strike first.

"...Get them out of here. Now. Escape, and they won't follow you, I think. And you can get to the forest before they're finished with us." Riley told him, lifting an arm weakly and gripping the heavily muscled leg he could reach. " **Go**."

He nodded loyally. "Of course." he agreed. The luxray blasted another beast to smithereens, and then bolted forward. He snagged Amber and Scarlet with his forelegs, holding them against his chest as best he could. The electric type then swerved left, grabbed Kurenai's scruff in his teeth and hooked Kazekai's horn in his hind claws. Before the beasts even recognized that their targets had simply vanished, before the pokemon themselves could even register what had happened, Gauge was at the edge of the elevated chunk of earth and had dived out of sight.

Mesa saw them go, saw Riley smile, and mentally nodded to herself. She would have put them first as well. She got to one knee and brought her staff around, smashing the head off of a beast. Knowing it was not enough, she whirled and slammed the underside of the chestplate with the boulder atop her earth staff, breaking it apart and ending it. She whirled and defeated another, and another, but they kept coming, kept crowding each other and her. One headbutted the girl in the side, knocking her away. The next slashed open her leg, causing Mesa to cry out momentarily.

And the third strike, another headbutt, sent her flying clear off the pillar and out of sight as well. Riley saw the beasts lose interest in the earth girl and turned to him again, closing in on him in a crowd of remaining monsters while dozens more circled overhead.

A glimmer appeared in the sky, and Riley's eyes trained on it. Like a missile, a pure silver metal beast that was shaped much like the bone creatures landed directly on him. Riley cried out as several of his ribs snapped under the pressure. Luck had run out, but he knew everybody else was safe. The creature above him was like the others, but covered in silver plating and with orange glowing eyes that looked much more mechanical.

"Hello, Riley."

Riley froze, looking backward, turning his head so that it was upside down and he could see behind him and in front of the metal monster on top of him. Fire seemed to appear everywhere, in the air. It swirled inwards into a ball of flames. Then, it burst and revealed a silhouette of a woman, eclipsed by the sun. She stepped forward and leaned over Riley, her face becoming visible as she stood directly above him.

"Miss me?" Ember smirked at him.

* * *

Tricky padded through the forest at a comfortable pace. Her cards spinning around her, and her ribbons waving through the air slowly, the magic sylveon paced calmly through the forest. She had plenty of time to kill, and intended to do so relaxing. The demon Dizzy had been destroyed, and that meant that many things were safe. The demon that could have put even the gods under her spell was vanquished and safely out of the way.

But she sensed a source of magic. Being directly connected to the guardian of magic had its perks, one of which being an innate ability to know magic when she sees or feels it. She adjusted her angle, intending to find this source before it escaped her. Perhaps her Guardian would pop by and she could catch up.

What she found was a shimmer in the air between two old trees, the branches of which formed an archway. The sylveon rather carelessly waltzed through and straight into the clearing where, obviously, Xerneas and the others lived.

Marigold detected the presence before the others, because Xerneas and Matt were working on more life-giving techniques in the background and being distracted by the four seasons of deerling that kept jumping around them as they watched, excited at the prospect of seeing a legendary and her godchild in action together.

"Excuse me." the gardevoir-human hybrid stepped in front of Tricky. "Why exactly are you here?"

The sound of his mother's voice dragged the two life givers' attentions away from their work as they looked at the cloaked sylveon with her cards. Matt blinked a few times at the sight, but Xerneas smiled. "Ah, Tricky." she greeted the sylveon.

"You know her?" Matt whispered.

"I have heard of her, and seen a vision of her, courtesy of Magic," Xerneas replied calmly, referring to the guardian. "Tricky is a personal friend of Angelica, and I believe she is much less likely to pull some sort of prank on us."

Matt sweatdropped. "Good, you had me worried for a few seconds." he murmured completely honestly.

Xerneas chuckled and bumped the boy with a blunt portion of her antlers. The legendary stepped up to Tricky calmly, and both fairy types shared a smile. "Hello, Xerneas." Tricky greeted the legendary. "Has Angelica stopped by?"

"We met her recently when Matt decided to visit his family." Xerneas nodded. "She changed Matt's mother into a gardevoir-human mix, a version of children like Matt. Then she did something to a painting, snapped her fingers a couple of times, and frightened us out of the house."

Tricky sweatdropped. "How did I know that paragraph was going to end like that?" she asked.

"Because as far as I know, that's Angelica standard," Matt commented.

Tricky nodded. "This is true." she agreed. "And I suspect she simply disappeared. How typical of her," she grumbled. "I have not seen her in a while, mostly because I was foolish enough to get close to Dizzy and was trapped in its power."

"Her, it, somebody make up their mind," Matt grumbled. "Is Dizzy a 'her' or an 'it' for goodness sakes?"

"It, technically." Tricky clarified "But the body she was primarily housed in was female."

"Thank you." Matt nodded, pacified. "Riley and his group came by, and helped us take this Pariah guy apart. After hearing some of their stories, I can't believe how many life or death situations have occurred around those guys. Makes me feel like I've been sitting here preparing to have a good life while everywhere around our nice little forest things have been going horribly real fast."

Tricky frowned. "Many things are beginning to happen around the region." she agreed. "I fear that soon many more legendaries and their children will be forced to be involved."

"Will there be fighting?" Marigold asked, moving protectively towards her son.

"Maybe." Tricky nodded. Xerneas frowned at this information. She had known this, yes, but she had not been aware of how quickly things were turning for the worse.

"How exactly are we going to deal with this?" Matt asked.

Xerneas provided the answer. "I am afraid, just to be safe, we should do some battle training." she murmured. "However, we must teach you how to control your energy and magic properly before that. We would continue with what we have been doing so far."

Matt nodded, reservation in his voice and body language. "Okay."

"Now, I would call Angelica, but I am under the impression that it would be… Kinder… Of me to do so when you all are not in eyesight. So there isn't any collateral damage."

Everyone chuckled. "Yeah, let's avoid that if at all possible." Xerneas agreed. "Is there anything you need from us?"

"I'll be all right." Tricky nodded. She turned and started walking away. "It was a pleasure meeting you!" she exclaimed over her shoulder.

"You too, Tricky." Xerneas respectfully nodded, a touch surprised that the pokemon had not stayed longer. Perhaps she simply enjoyed being on the move. Xerneas turned back to Matt. "...Where were we?"

* * *

Ember wiped the spit from her face. "I'll take it that's a 'no'."

"That's a no." Riley agreed, his face contorted with rage. "You're just as much of a bitch as the first time I kicked your ass."

"The first and last time," Ember said, walking around and resting her hand on the beast that held Riley down. "I spent an extra five days waiting to exact my revenge, and in return got the full control I had been lacking. All that is left is to wait."

"Wait for what?" Riley asked, his voice a snarl.

She smirked. "The beginning of the end, of course," she replied cryptically. Riley groaned and slammed the back of his head into the dirt they stood on.

"You cryptic piece of filth…" Riley muttered.

"You have a knack for surviving bullshit experiences through bullshit means," Ember explained. "So spilling my heart out to you could prove worthless." She brought her left hand outwards to her side, and fire erupted from the silk glove on her hand, coiling up and down. The new circlet made of gold that she wore on her head flashed, and the fire actually solidified. "Like the new trick?" she asked, pointing the newly formed glowing orange spear right at Riley's chin. "I can create whatever I wish," she explained haughtily.

"So the magma things and this metal one are your pets?" Riley asked "I can't say that isn't a nice trick, though. Honestly, if all you needed was a little gold loop on your head to-Guh!" His chest was suddenly struck with more weight as the beast seemed to gain metal plating in spikes along its neck and back, the silver metal being generated from the fire itself as it spread from her white gloves.

"I think I'll let your little friends go." Ember went on. "You're the only real threat we've seen. Interestingly, I was supposed to leave you alive at first."

She leaned forward. "But five days is plenty of time for plans to change," she whispered. The woman crouched and searched one of Riley's pockets, pulling out the pokedex inside it. Fire trailed from her other hand and formed a little handbag of glowing orange material, which she put the pokedex in. "Considering we only need this, I convinced my boss to let me just end you now."

"Heh… Mesa's still a threat to you." Riley said. "And she's **escaped**. What do you think's going to happen to you when the earth girl gets to you?" he chuckled. "You're going to be crushed flat."

"Nonsense." Ember shrugged the thought off. "There were enough gryphons below where she fell to tear her into a hundred pieces before she hit the ground!"

Riley's heart almost stopped. "...What?" he asked, uncomprehending.

"There are as many of these things as I want there to be." Ember shrugged. "Having a horde of them appear at the bottom of your fancy pillar? Child's play. The groudon girl is dead."

"That… Can't…" Riley whispered, "She's stronger than that."

"Enough chatter." Ember pulled back her spear. "A shame you never lived up to your full potential, Child of Time."

Riley heard those words like they were in the background. His fists clenched, and his energy was spiking. It built in his chest, gathering in his body and threatening to burst out of him. The pain flared, and he shouted in rage at the woman above him.

 **Boom.**

Riley's energy faded almost completely away. The earth shook. Riley blinked. Ember did as well.

 **Boom**.

 **Boom**.

 **Boom**.

Ember whirled, stepping away from Riley. "What!?" she exclaimed, looking over at where Mesa had dropped. Before her eyes. The earth beneath the pillar exploded with fiery magma and rock, cascading down through the air and onto the platform and down. Mesa dropped to one knee as she landed, absorbing the impact.

She looked **very** different.

When she stood, it was clear that she was roughly one hundred and twenty-five percent her original size. Her skin had turned red, with black markings on her exposed arms and chest. Spikes originated from her shoulder blades. Three spikes on each side, down her arms, pointing backward. Her hands had grown large white claws that were barely short enough not to hinder her when she clenched her fists. Her staff had grown with her, planted in the dirt in her right hand as she stood before them all. Glowing yellow eyes met Ember's easily.

"You pathetic excuse for a woman." Mesa proclaimed as she stepped forward. "I am the child of a **god**!" her footsteps boomed, the noise easily recognizable. "Can you really expect magma to hurt me, the child of the god under the earth?"

Ember stepped back, pointing her new spear at the girl. "Tear her apart!" she ordered. All the creatures with the exception of the one holding Riley down leaped into action, nearly a hundred gryphon-like creatures closing in on the girl from all angles.

" **Enough**!" Meza literally roared, slamming her staff into the ground. The pillar rumbled and promptly shattered into many pieces as everyone was sent flying in different directions. Most of the boulders that came from the pillar flew straight at enemies, tearing them apart and scattering their remains. Ember could not believe what she was seeing.

"Such power…" she whispered "How is this possible? It's almost as if…"

Mesa's glare turned to Ember as the woman landed lightly on the ground. Ember's spear was dismissed as she watched the remainder of her beasts being destroyed. Riley dropped to the ground, attempting to land but collapsed. Mesa stepped forward, the earth shaking despite her size compared to the range of the quakes. "Almost as if I'm fighting groudon himself," Ember whispered to herself.

"You underestimated me," Mesa said simply. "I am a fully fledged godchild of Groudon. Trained in combat and with full access to my powers. I am the daughter of the earthshaker! And fire bows down to earth and stone."

Ember looked at the pouch at her side. She straightened, and smirked. "Such a shame I didn't take the opportunity to end your pathetic friend's life." she proclaimed. "However, I no longer need to take any of you down. I have all I need to set things in motion."

"You will not be leaving this place alive," Mesa swore, and shifted into a position with a cry of rage. Her power over the earth took hold as her foot slid into position, ripping the ground right out from under Ember, who exclaimed and was dropped straight onto her face.

The golden circlet around the woman's head flashed, and fire erupted from her palms. She lifted herself up as the flames surrounded her body and turned into silver colored armor and a pair of glowing orange energy wings attached to her back. The woman floated several feet off of the ground, glaring down at Mesa.

"I, dear, am first and foremost an inventor." Ember proclaimed, spreading her arms. "And that is the most powerful position one can have. An inventor can eventually overcome **anything**!"

She brought her left arm forward, fire swirling around it until a cannon-looking device had materialized on it. "Even the gods," she said, and a bright beam of pure orange energy erupted straight at Mesa.

The girl stepped aside, watching the beam blast straight through a boulder, piercing it, before exploding in mid-air a second after it struck. Mesa scowled and looked at the woman yet again, knowing that creating an earthen shield would be less effective than she would like.

" **I'll tear you apart**!" Mesa promised, pointing her earth staff at the woman and launching a boulder at mach speeds directly at her. Ember yelped and dropped a good meter to avoid being smashed and rose up again. Her circlet glistened, and rings of fire erupted from her gloves before coalescing into rings around her. Those rings somehow became metal, the new mechanical rings looking odd. They had glowing orange triangles on the edges of the rings which were outlined by more metal.

"I doubt that." Ember retorted as the rings began spinning. "Promethean cutter!"

The rings spun towards Mesa, who leapt aside as the blades dug into the ground. Mesa was left staring as the rings rose up and began following her. She experimentally blasted one with a boulder, but the boulder was ripped in half by the flying blade.

Mesa smacked one aside as it approached and turned the other slightly sideways with the end of her staff before hopping through the open ring as it sailed past. " _How the hell is she creating something from nothing!?"_ Mesa asked mentally.

"Perish!" Ember screamed, unleashing dozens of silver spears straight from her fiery aura that curved towards the girl even as the promethean cutter approached from behind.

"I don't think so." Mesa brought the ground around her up in a pillar again, the weapons all driving into the ground below her and detonating violently enough to topple the stone tower Mesa had created. However, Mesa wasn't done. The earth under her turned molten hot under her power and exploded, launching her straight at an unprepared Ember.

She slammed the woman straight in the chestplate with enough strength to topple a reinforced wall, driving Ember into the ground. Then, she landed and drew her hand towards the earth under the stunned woman. " **Eruption**." she incanted.

The earth where her palm was pointed started to glow with power and Ember shrieked as she jumped to her feet. It was far too late for the woman, however. Mesa turned her palm upwards and threw her hand up in the air, and the ground underneath Ember exploded in a pillar of molten rock and dirt. Mesa was rewarded with a high pitched scream of pain.

The magma cleared to show Ember in the air with heavily damaged armor and the arm cannon she developed non-functional, with no time to build an entire set of armor with fire before she was attacked again. Therefore, Ember seemed to have only one choice.

Escape.

Fire flashed, as did the gold circlet on her head that held some sort of ability, and her wings turned back into flame before coalescing into what looked more like jet wings with whining engines. Mesa roared and charged along the ground towards Ember, the earth blasting apart under the child of earth's feet with each step, but Ember twisted in the air, nursing the burns on her body, and with a burst of energy was far too far away for Mesa to attack.

Ember had run away.

Mesa growled as she slowed down, skidding to a stop. The path had been torn apart super badly after she had consciously started obliterating it with her own magma. The remaining beasts shuddered and collapsed, the bones converting into fire and disappearing. The prometheus cutters raced for her, even while dissolving, and she grabbed the first without looking, stopping it in its tracks. The metal started to melt from the heat left in Mesa's hand, before both burst into flame and disappeared. Fire turning into physical weapons… How?

Mesa shook her head. Time for that later. She darted up to Riley and picked the boy up, slinging him over her shoulder. "Oi! Everyone!' she called "Battle's over!"

Riley groaned, keeping one eye closed. "Nice one, Mesa." He complimented. "You're awesome."

"Good work stalling." Mesa nodded. "I did get almost overwhelmed; I didn't think there were going to be enemies down there and had to seal myself away in stone for a bit before I could fully shift."

"You look awesome, too," Riley muttered as Amber and Scarlet and Kurenai raced from the treeline, Gauge and Kazekai close behind. The girls leaped and tackled the injured Riley straight off of Mesa's shoulder, and began simultaneously expressing relief that he was alright and slapping the living shit out of him for putting himself in danger without enough backup **again**.

"Ow, Ow, Ow…" Riley groaned "Scarlet, you're going to hurt your paws more."

"I don't care!" Scarlet shouted. "You ordered Gauge to get us out of there and leave you to die!"

"Yes, I did!"

Mesa flinched as he said that, certain it had been a grievous mistake on his part.

 **Slap!**

There had been a little electricity in that one. Scarlet was **seething**.

Mesa sighed and let out a long, slow breath. The drought stone above her breasts sank back into her skin, and her skin returned to its dark color rather than the red. Mesa shrank and her clothes too returned to normal, for they had appeared a darker color during her time as a half-groudon mix. Her eyes returned to normal and her staff shrank to fit her size. The suffocating power she exuded disappeared.

"You were awesome." Kazekai complimented her. "I don't know that the heck that lady was doing with the fire and the super weapons, but you toasted her."

Mesa shook her head. "She suddenly seemed to be in a hurry, but she definitely could have kept on fighting." she refuted. "She had to be somewhere. She might even have won if she wised up to what I was doing. Those weapons were very dangerous, and if I had made the mistake of protecting myself with a dirt wall, the beam's detonation had a delay. I would have been blown up. Something stopped her."

Riley stood up, the girls toppling off of him with shouts of indignation as the pokemon unceremoniously tumbled to a stop on the ground. "I **have** to stop getting my ass kicked," he muttered. "Oh well. She nicked my pokedex, for some reason, but aren't those just glorified encyclopedias?"

"A strange thing for her to take before she tried to kill you." Mesa agreed. "We will have to speak with the professor using a phone when we reach Saffron."

"Sure, sure, can we get back to beating the snot out of Riley and making him promise to let us try to save **his** sorry arse next time?" Amber asked irritably. Riley let out a grunt of disapproval, rubbing his cheek.

Mesa grinned. "Go for it," she said with a wave of her hand. "We leave in ten minutes, and then you can't anymore, so get your punches in."

"Mesa- ow!" Riley was tackled again. The dark skinned girl rolled her eyes and set to shifting the dirt back into the path where it was supposed to be. When she was done with it, it would just look like a madman had taken a mechanical rototiller to the place.

* * *

Pariah and Sigilyph flashed into visibility as they finished teleporting. The man checked the dark balls at his waist, ensuring that he had every last dark ball in his possession.

He found himself feeling weak; too weak to continue without rest. "...Why am I so tired?" he asked.

" _Because I was in a hurry."_ Sigilyph explained quickly " _And because I chose to travel much further this time. Welcome to Johto. It drained both of us to manage it."_

Pariah stopped in the middle of sitting down on a nearby boulder. "...What." he deadpanned, "Why."

" _Because the first Reburst device was discovered in the ruins of Alph,"_ Sigilyph explained tensely. " _Rest, Pariah. We will not lose another battle for foolish reasons such as lack of sleep."_

Pariah leaned back, nodding. He fell more than settled onto the back of the boulder, feeling more tired than he should have been. "Guh, this hurts a lot. Did we lose a few days? The sun's in the wrong spot." he asked.

" _Possibly,"_ Sigilyph admitted. " _We attempted to teleport over a hundred miles in one go, which may have slowed us down."_

"You don't sound too bad," Pariah grumbled, closing his eyes.

" _That would be because I was_ _ **not**_ _the carry-on."_ Sigilyph pointed out, eliciting a chuckle from his partner. " _I will keep watch."_

"You do that." Pariah then drifted off into sleep. Sigilyph faced away from his comrade, troubled. Teleportation was supposed to be instantaneous, but the sun was in the wrong place. He knew he had landed in the correct location… Sigilyph had the sneaking suspicion something else was at play in this instance, and it had resulted in their energy draining somewhat as a consequence. He had lied to his partner, as Sigilyph knew that Pariah may get sidetracked tracking down whatever had done this to them. They needed to focus.

He scanned the area with his psychic abilities, picking up the signatures of unassuming pokemon, and… A human. Behind him.

Sigilyph whirled and charged, zooming up to the human. It was little more than a boy, perhaps seven years old. Sigilyph glared down at the little creature even as the kid jolted out of his staring at Pariah. What the hell was a **kid** doing in the middle of nowhere? Or was this nowhere? Were they actually uncomfortably close to a settlement?

Sigilyph forced the little boy back as he floated forward. The child tripped on a stone embedded in the ground and collapsed, shivering, on the ground as his brown eyes stared fearfully at Sigilyph's own eyes. " **What do you know**?" Sigilyph asked harshly, using telepathy. " **Tell me**!"

"Uh-ah-uh…" The boy stammered "I dunno! I just saw him on TV! He attacked a girl before he was defeated in a really weird battle, and… And…"

Even **that** was far too much knowledge. If the boy reported where they were, they would have to relocate immediately, and Sigilyph was beginning to run low on energy from constant power use. Teleporting was **not** easy. Sigilyph could not allow this. " **I won't allow you to live**." the psychic type said gravely, generating power in his upper eye to deliver a psybeam to the pitiful child.

* * *

Embers scorched through the air, glowing hot among the cobblestones of a city that was being attacked. Buildings burned, and people screamed. Sigilyph's vision burned red, as he towered over a little boy that cowered before him.

There was a shout of pain as Sygilyph began charging more power into his psybeam, intent on ending the pitiful creature before him that he hated so much, when a dark ball rolled from behind Sigilyph and up to the child.

The child saw the ball and had seen what had come from it. He scrambled with his hands until the nine-year old's fingers grasped around a loose chunk of stone that had been blasted over towards him, and he struck the dark ball hard enough to shatter the device.

Sigilyph's eyesight cleared instantly as the boy backed up and ran away from him, turning a corner and disappearing. Sigilyph felt a monstrous pain in his mind and collapsed unconscious onto the ground until morning.

* * *

Sigilyph's psybeam died down, the seven-year-old boy still cowering before him. The psychic type growled at himself mentally before directing his thoughts at the kid. Entering the boy's mind instead, he scrambled some of the kid's recent memories. Painful, but not fatal. " **Beat it** ," he ordered, watching the boy run away while clutching his head and crying. No permanent damage had been done.

Sigilyph shook himself. Equating the disgustingly similar boy to Pariah was beneath him. That kid had likely been pampered most of his life. But the similarities were far too close to burn his face off with a psybeam.

Mentally grumbling to himself, Sigilyph settled where he floated to continue keeping watch.

* * *

An orange light streaked across the sky, alerting the pokemon underneath it as it flew past. The peculiar noise it made sounded quite like engines, but it was small and fast. No way could it be a plane or another type of aircraft. Nor was it a missile, as the energy surrounding it would have vaporized it or detonated it.

It approached a compound that consisted of a natural cavern with a large metal door, and then screamed into the ground, leaving a trench in its wake as it crashed. A woman tumbled away from the crash, shrieking in pain.

Ember rose to her knees, her hands clutched around the gold circlet that was on her head. It was glowing white hot and was burning the woman. It stubbornly refused to get off even as the residual pieces of the odd technology she had created using her fire burned out of existence.

Ember wailed as she tried to force the item off of her head, finally succeeding in her task with another gasp. The angry red scar that circled her forehead was plainly visible even as she collapsed onto her hands and knees and the metal circlet clattered to the floor and promptly broke into several pieces, spilling miniature glowing reactors all over the ground. The handbag made of glowing orange energy finally dissolved, leaving a pokedex unharmed.

The woman saw the reactors built into the mechanical device that had burned her flash, and she grabbed the pokedex and turned her back with the precious device held against her stomach before the reactors promptly exploded and blasted the woman away and into the rock surface next to the door. She deflected against it, and, bleeding from her face and her chest directly above her breasts, she toppled to the ground.

She groaned, thinking that she should not have wasted any time demonstrating her power to the annoying groudon girl. It had cost her her creation crown, which she resolved to build better, more efficient, and far more powerful than before. She heard gears grinding together loudly as the door began to crack open even as she tried to sit up on the dirt. The woman checked the device in her hands, smirking victoriously as she discovered that the item was unharmed.

And then Ember fainted.

* * *

She awoke in a hospital-esk bed, deep within the compound that she crashed nearby. She tried to bring her hands to her head, but her wrists were caught.

She opened her eyes quickly when she felt the hand close around her wrist, ready to burn the aggressor when she saw the uniform he wore and stopped. Roasting one's healer would generally be considered a bad idea.

"You have extensive scarring on your forehead," he explained tensely. "Nothing deep enough to prove a major health detriment, but plenty deep enough to leave a scar. Don't touch it; It's still healing."

"The pokedex?"

"Safely with the boss." the healer nodded quickly. "You've succeeded. It's already being put in place by the mechanics."

Ember sank into the bed a bit more, relaxing. "I was too theatrical," she grumbled. "And it almost cost me a lot."

Her doctor growled at her. "I told you to be far more careful," he said in a low tone of voice. "Get the job done and move on before you have the chance to lose. You nearly got yourself killed!"

Ember looked around, seeing that her laptop had been moved into the room. She reached out and grabbed it from the table next to her bed, opening it up. Her eyes narrowed at the design of the crown in the program that immediately opened on the screen. "Get twice the amount of gold and reactors." she ordered, "And one of the two remaining drought stones from Hoenn."

"You nearly died with half of that!" her doctor exclaimed.

"Goal first." she shot back, giving the design a grim calculative stare. She started changing the design before his eyes. "Order those parts, or at least their components."

"Ember!" the man began, and faltered as the woman looked him in the eyes with a glare that would freeze any subordinate, a glare she had learned from her own boss.

" **Now**." she growled.

The man recovered rather quickly. "You're asking me to stand aside while my sister gets herself killed," he said.

"Hush, Blaise." Ember retorted, looking towards the ceiling. "You know what everyone's working towards and why."

Blaise shook his head, his gaze reluctantly softening. "As stubborn as ever." he murmured. "You'll get those parts, considering your goal," he promised, picking up some tools. "... **After** I make sure you're in good enough health to be here unsupervised." he compromised with a slight chuckle.

After he had done his checkup and left for the night, closing the door and turning the lights off, the only source of light was Ember's laptop and the only sound was the sound of fingers on keys. Over the next few hours, the simple gold circle turned into something far more elaborate and impressive looking. Ember edited and added the three-dimensional digital representation of the drought stone into the crown with a smirk.

* * *

 **Okay, so that was a thing. No, that was several things. I've managed to expand on a lot of things here, and as you can see, Ember's not nearly as powerless as she was before. Though she nearly died doing it...**

 **Anyways, stuff and things and more stuff, but ultimately, it sets up for the plot to start being more obvious and defined. I hope you liked this chapter, as well as the character expansion stuff I have going on. Please review, tell me what you thought, and have a nice day!**


	21. Chapter Twenty-One: Exposition

**Hello, everybody. Hyperjade here, and welcome one and all to chapter twenty-one of New Age: World of Pokemon!**

 **It's later at night, so let's respond to reviews! Yeah, Gauge's use of the phrase 'this is the longest we've gone without dying' was very intentional. See, it's such a cliche that it is the ultimate way of telling the reader that something bad is going to happen. Sorry that the impact of the godchildren's anthropomorphic forms was lessened for you, West. And well said about Ember, by the way. She was meant to be seen as weak by the characters, and if some readers were thinking that, then they would read about Ember planning revenge and might think that it would be rather anti-climatic, resulting in (hopefully) surprise when Ember pulled the massive power boost.**

 **Jango: And I think you and Hyper had a whole conversation about the whole scene between Sigilyph aiming that psybeam and shutting it down.**

 **Amber: Uh... So Jango. Has Frost popped up lately?**

 **Jango: A few times. The chick can't take a hint, which is great news for me. I can get my prank quota out of the way daily with no trouble with her around. It's been absolutely brilliant. She's so fun to mess with and tease.**

 **Amber: ...What.**

 **Jango: Please don't beat me into the ground. Aaanyways, that pokedex thing will be explained, What Lies Beyond. Yes, implications are a thing, and yes, Ember turned out to be a big threat. Ah, memories. That is, one memory, but whatever.**

 **Me: If you recall, ArataTheLegend, Riley and Mesa battled and it resulted in a tie. As for physical strength, I'll let the story play out in that regard.**

 **Phillip... Yeah, I didn't really think the dragon typing thing through. I tend to ignore the weaknesses and strengths of the dragon type aside from the fact that fairies and other dragons can hurt dragons pretty badly. I'll consider the whole 'esque' thing, and try to find and fix that issue. Thank you for pointing it out.**

 **And finally, thank you for the praise, GGuy12345.**

 **Jango: Okay, that's all said and done, and now we can get onto the interesting bits. The shenanigans and explanations garunteed to occur in chapter twenty one of New Age. Get reading, people!**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-One: Exposition**

"Why can't I get this?"

Riley sat next to Kurenai on a couch as they looked at a book once more. Kurenai looked very frustrated, and Riley was rubbing her back slowly and methodically, working to calm her. "You're going to be fine," he assured her.

Kazekai sat beside Kurenai, staring at the book she was trying to read. He didn't look like he understood what was happening whatsoever.

"I don't know why you chose something so difficult to read." Riley commented softly "Heck, I don't know what some of those words mean. Are you sure you don't want to read something simpler for practice?"

Kurenai stubbornly shook her head. "I can do this." she proclaimed, staring at it. Word by word, she read aloud from the large and difficult book grunting in annoyance whenever she failed to pronounce one properly. "How do I… Ono… mato? How the heck am I supposed to pronounce this?" she asked, staring at a word. Kazekai shrugged, baffled.

"I think it's… Ono-mato-p-oh-ia?" Riley muttered. "Ono-Mato-Poe-ia. Onomatopoeia. That has to be one of the weirdest spellings I've ever seen."

"I thought you had a freaking metagross for a teacher," Mesa said, appearing near them. "The 'O' is generally treated as silent in the common tongue, and the 'T' is either silent or used depending on the speaker, but it's not like that 'T' really is the defining factor, so that's fine."

"I did have a metagross for a teacher." Riley muttered, "Never in my life have I heard this one before."

He suddenly pointed at Mesa. "How do **you** know how to pronounce it?" he demanded.

Mesa pushed a book in his face for Riley to see. "...Oh." Riley muttered as he made out 'dictionary' on the cover. And she then opened it to the page that her finger had held, and showed the word and its pronunciation.

"I can't believe that you're trying to teach someone how to read without a basic dictionary on hand, you idiot," Mesa said, dropping the book on Riley's lap. Then she turned to Kurenai, and her tone was less tough and kinder. "And color me impressed, Kurenai. You're doing very well for a book like that."

Riley sat back, defeated, while Kurenai glowed with happiness after the praise. Mesa started walking away, looking back over her shoulder. "Be sure to put that back on the shelf when you're done." she instructed "It belongs to the pokemon center. Riley, you come with me and we can make a few calls"

Riley nodded. "Okay, Kurenai. Maybe you can get Kazekai to help you with that. Just tell him to search for the word you can't figure out in the book." he instructed. Kurenai had already started reading again and instructing Kazekai on what he should do. Kazekai happily moved to help his sister with the reading, despite not being able to understand the words. He was the page turner, they supposed.

Riley followed Mesa to the nearest PC. "We can do video calls with this," she explained. "Yeah, we can do the same with our phones, but honestly, this screen is many times bigger than that one."

"Okay?" Riley asked, blinking. He was feeling a bit tired at the moment. Maybe the 'constantly nearly dying' thing was actually starting to take a toll on him. He wandered the last few steps over to where Mesa was waiting and watched as he stepped up.

He halted. "Uh… Who do I call first?" he asked dumbly.

"Moron, call your mom first." Mesa punched him in the shoulder. "I'm sure she'll want to know you're all right."

Riley stiffened.

Mesa looked at him. "...Riley." she said slowly "When was the last time you called your mother?"

"Eh…"

Amber and Mesa both facepawed and facepalmed in unison, sighing. "If you hadn't lived so long without her, I'd probably be judging you more," Mesa muttered. She dragged Riley front and center and watched him check his phone to remind himself of his mother's number. His embarrassment had caved into a weird sort of exhausted sorrow.

Mesa couldn't help but feel bad for Riley. He had been through more in a month than most trainers deal with in their lifetimes; Life or death situations perpetrated purposely by other beings just aren't that common. And this kid had survived many attempts on his life thus far. Not only that, but concerning all of the banter, he was carrying all of the emotional weight so that the pokemon following him would not suffer from that weight.

Nevertheless, she was not going to protect him from the earful he was about to receive. He needed a wake up call anyways.

She watched him dial the number on the screen's interface, and stepped back to simply exist in the background.

Riley found that his mother answered practically before it rang, which surprised Riley enough, but then he jolted when her first words were: "Where **have**. **You**. **Been**!?" she shouted.

He jolted back, seeing that her hair was a bit messy and she had a wild look in her eyes. "Uh… Hi mom?" he said carefully.

"That's all you have to say!?" she exclaimed "For weeks, all I've heard of you is information from Jenny! 'Yes, he's okay, Mrs. Oras', 'no, he is no longer in danger, Mrs. Oras', 'your son was involved in a dangerous about of combat with what can only be described as a demon, but he is fine now, Mrs. Oras', do you have any idea how terrified I was!?"

Riley was nearly cowering by this point. His mother's expression was more frightening than any enemy that had faced him ever was. The expression was one of terror and pain. "I…" he tried, but faltered. His eyes felt heavy right now.

"What do you have to say for yourself!?" she demanded "Why haven't you contacted me!? Why haven't you stopped and rested!?"

"I-I… I don't... Know…" Riley wilted miserably, unable to meet his mother's eyes. "It's… I didn't… Everything's been so…"

"I can't take this, Riley!" she shouted at the boy "I wake up every morning wondering if this is going to be the day that Officer Jenny comes to my door and tells me that my only son has died in combat!"

Riley looked up, managing to meet his mother's eyes. "What should I be doing?" he asked miserably, shakily. "I need to protect pokemon, and right now there are two criminal organizations trying to put them in danger. I can't just… Walk away, I can't!"

"But why do you have to be the one to do it!?" she demanded.

"Because unlike all of the police, I actually understand them!" Riley suddenly exclaimed, "And I can't abandon them! I've seen what humans do to them. I've seen them dead in cages, enslaved against their will, and looked down on constantly by humans! And being part pokemon like I am, I have a duty to them!"

Calia broke down further, beginning to really cry. Riley couldn't think of anything to do for her; He had to continue what he was doing. He **had** to. He gripped the sides of the PC and leaned closer to her. "Mom…" he said quietly, just barely loud enough to catch her attention. "Please… There can't be that many things left capable of killing me anymore. I've put a ton of them into the ground, and I've been able to handle myself so far." he tried to reason with her "Besides, I'm part Dialga. I've got a god's powers on my side."

"Please tell me something, Riley." Calia pleaded after a moment.

"Anything," Riley promised immediately.

"I… Never got the full details of these situations you were in." she said quietly "You keep coming so close to death… Please tell me, how close have you come?"

Riley lowered his head. "I've been saved at the last moment several times…" he admitted "knocked out for days by Dizzy, nearly went from blood loss by Mute and Zach… I was barely prevented from getting shredded by a monster by Amber, almost got melted in lava the same day…" he trailed off. "I'll admit it, I'm exhausted, mom, but I can't stop. Everything's happening at once and watching people and pokemon be killed is just something I can't... I can't do."

Calia looked horrified at his list of injuries and his admission. "Please rest…" she whispered "At least for a few days? I know I can't stop you… I know you barely know me, I don't know how much of a mother you think of me as, but do this for me, please!"

Riley stared at her for a full minute. "...Of course, I think of you as my mother," he stated.

Her expression, still tearful, brightened nevertheless. Riley nodded firmly to her. "I can rest when I get to Celadon City." he continued "I promise I will."

She shook. "Thank you… My son…" she murmured.

He grinned. "No problem," he replied easily, cheerfully. His mother saw right through it. She could see how tired he was. His somewhat short hair was messed up, his eyes had dark spots under them to show that he hadn't been resting properly recently. His eyes were droopy, and his posture sagged. He needed a serious vacation, but he still kept up that cheerful and assuring facade for as long as he could manage.

Calia could not stop worrying about her son, but at the moment, she was resigned to the fact that she could not stop him from doing his job. "...Are you going to introduce me to your new friend?" she finally asked, not wanting this contact with her son to end so soon.

"Oh, this is Mesa." Riley gestured to the dark skinned girl, who stepped forward. "She's the one who's saved my ass in this last attack."

"How eloquent," Mesa muttered dryly as she stepped forward. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Calia smiled warmly at the girl. "You have my gratitude for saving my son." she returned.

Mesa frowned. "It was tough. Like, really tough. I had to go full groudon on that woman, the one named Ember."

Calia blinked. "Groudon? Ember?" she asked.

Riley clapped Mesa on the shoulder. "Mesa here is like me. She's the godchild of Groudon. Pretty much how I share Dialga's power." he explained easily "And Ember's the fire woman who led the experiments in the old power plant and recently seemed to gain the ability to build stuff out of fire."

Mesa further explained: "She created non-pokemon monsters out of pure fire and attacked with them. Thanks to our teamwork, along with the other pokemon, we managed to scrape by without permanent injuries."

Calia sighed. "I'm glad…" she murmured. Then, her eyes opened and she met Mesa's with a fierceness that the girl had not anticipated. "I want to know more about you," she said flatly.

Mesa quickly recounted the story she had given Riley from a while back, being certain to also explain Riley's potential's similarity to hers. Calia nodded once or twice, considering. Finally, she smiled. "I am glad to know that Riley has someone similar to him now that he can relate to, and that you can keep him alive."

"As long as **he** doesn't make that difficult for me." Mesa glared at Riley for a moment, who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, "That should be just fine."

The girls talked for a while as Riley glanced around. He sweatdropped. Several of the trainers in the pokecenter had been alerted by the loud conversation earlier and were staring at him. He supposed it was good that he hadn't discussed where Dialga actually was. He was probably going to have to answer some questions.

"Riley, can I ask you a question?" he heard, and turned back to the PC.

"Yeah, go ahead, mom." he waved a hand in a 'go on' gesture, but that led Calia to exclaim in surprise.

"Show me your hand first," she commanded sternly. Riley blinked and opened his palm in her direction, letting his mother see the zebstrika-stripes looking scars on his palm and fingers. "What is this, Riley? I thought you had no permanent injuries or scars!?"

"That was from Dizzy…" he muttered, "When I crushed her gem-eye-thing in my hand."

Her stare was piercing. "What other scars have these situations dealt you?" she asked harshly. Riley was about to change the topic, looking embarrassed, but Mesa muttered and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it up to reveal the many burn scars on his chest. Calia gasped, and Riley looked at Mesa in a 'why would you do that!?' expression.

"Ah… That was just a little magma…" he muttered.

" **Just a little magma!?** "

"Well, yeah," Riley responded, pulling his shirt out of Mesa's grip and back down. "So what did you want to ask me?"

This change in topic shocked Calia, who wondered how her son could possibly think that being covered in **lava** was somehow not the most important part of his injury list and the one that needed to be immediately addressed. Nevertheless, she managed to recover and promised herself that she would interrogate him about the extent of his injuries at some other time. "Yes… I heard Mesa say that she considered Groudon to be her father… Do you feel the same way about Dialga?"

Riley stilled. "Well…" he hesitated "Dialga wasn't exactly a big part of my life, like, at all. I met him for the first time just before I left, honestly. Metagross acted as a teacher, not a parent. Honestly, the most parental figure before I met you was Kangaskhan, and I didn't see her daily or anything."

He frowned. "I mean, I figure that if Dialga wanted to try and get to know me like that, I could be pretty open to it. I mean, we got along really well the first time we met. He'd need to put some effort into it, though. I've had Kangaskhan and you, both acting motherly towards me."

"...And so you have never had an actual father figure." Calia murmured sadly "And I can't really provide one."

Riley looked confused. "What do you mean?" he asked. His mother looked very uncomfortable, looking away from her son.

"...Your father disappeared soon after you were born." Calia revealed slowly. "No words, no reasoning, his actions didn't seem to scream out some sort of problem… He just disappeared. He must have walked straight out the door with as many of his things as he could carry. It didn't make any sense."

She looked at Riley carefully, gauging his reaction. She was prepared to face the music in this case, expecting Riley to be angry at the thought.

Riley shrugged. "Oh well." he said carelessly "If he left, it was on him."

Calia was slack-jawed. It was almost as if Riley did not actually care much about whether he had a father or not! Was his culture from the pokemon world so different that his lack of a father did not affect him as much? Or… Was he faking it all?

Calia could not tell how much he actually cared about his parentage. It was like he was… Detached. It clicked then for Calia: He **was** detaching himself. He was hoping not to make as heavy of an impact on everyone if he was killed in combat, and the only ones he treated differently from that was the pokemon, who he trusted to be able to move on without him. His mother though, Calia, would hardly recover if her boy was destroyed and he had connected so thoroughly with her. He **saw** that, and attempted to detach himself.

Calia reflected on how brilliant her boy was in his analysis and attempting to console her. She tried to think that he was telling her not to grow too attached to him, but after witnessing his selflessness and knowing all about how he acted under pressure and how he acted only for others… Her heart soared with pride even as she feared that he would be in danger soon.

"...Alright…" Calia murmured "Please, please be careful, Riley."

"You bet." her boy nodded.

"Who, whoa, were you about to hang up without calling us over!"

Mesa and Riley started at the voice as Riley's mother's personal space was suddenly invaded by a leafeon and a manectric as they got right in front of the screen. Then Riley raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, guys." he greeted the two.

The female manectric huffed at the word 'guys', but still smiled as she and her male leafeon friend started jabbering about all of the recent things going on and wanting to know what was happening with Riley.

Riley glanced around for Amber, finding that she and Gauge had joined up with Kurenai and Kazekai after being treated by the nurse. Scarlet had joined them, so all were accounted for. Then he looked back and began telling the two excited pokemon several short stories about the most amusing things that had happened on their journey so far, the banter, the different shenanigans of the group, etcetera. Calia listened just as intently as her pokemon, even finding herself chuckling at points.

By the time he was nearing the end of the happier version of an overhaul, Amber had gotten bored of Kurenai's reading session and had bounded up to Riley and clambered up to his shoulder. She greeted the others, who waved right back.

"Figured out what you want to evolve into yet?" Leafeon teased. A standard question. Ever since humans started putting so much stress and worry into deciding how to evolve their eevees, eevees have been teasing each other about it as well.

Amber smirked, remembering that these two had no idea how awesome she was. Her necklace flashed, and she shifted into a jolteon right then and there, making Leafeon almost fall off the counter where he was sitting in pure shock. Then Amber quickly shifted back to avoid being too badly exhausted by the energy it took to do so. Then, she grinned at the leafeon and shifted again into a vaporeon form, her now much more obvious weight tempting Riley to take her off of his shoulder until she shifted back once more.

"...Whaaaaaaaat." Manectric muttered slowly, monotonously, and slightly disbelieving.

A winged luxray, an eevee that could shift eeveelutions at will, an absol who was liberated from a dark ball and his sister, and who knows what abilities the pichu had. Calia smiled. That was quite the tough bunch her son had with him. He was protected on all fronts.

"Yeeeeeep." Amber mimicked her tone, smirking at her. Leafeon was quite suddenly sulking, more in the background than he was before.

"I wish I could do that…" he said.

Riley started laughing as Mesa gave a chuckle. Calia smiled, despite not knowing what the pokemon had said. Amber chortled at the leafeon, teasing him. "Eevee master race, fool!" Amber called, pumping her paw in the air.

"Humble as always, fox." Riley sweatdropped.

"The name's Amber." the fox replied, slapping her tail across Riley's face. "Learn it."

"No," Riley smirked.

Calia wished she wasn't the only person in the area that couldn't understand the eevee.

Mesa cleared her throat. "We do have some important questions for professor Oak, Mrs. Oras." she proclaimed.

"Oh?" Calia asked.

"Uh… Yeah, the psycho flame woman kind of nicked my pokedex… For some reason." Riley rubbed the back of his neck "I figured I'd ask Oak why that is."

"If I get my hands on that woman…" Calia growled "I would like to know as well. We can contact him by simply adding him to the call."

She typed at the computer, and a small request window popped up on the PC screen on their side. Mesa quickly tapped it because she assumed Riley would be hopeless with it, and the screen seemed to split (to Riley, anyways), and show an image of a phone ringing.

They waited patiently while Riley leaned confusedly to the side so that his face was directly across from his mother's again. Calia could tell her son that she could still see him front and center like normal, but… He looked too cute leaning over with that puzzled expression. It reminded her a shocking amount of how Leafeon looked when confused. Or any quadrupedal pokemon. An interesting sight on a bipedal… Human.

Calia wondered as she waited for professor Oak to pick up on his computer whether her boy was more human or more pokemon. It was more curiosity than anything; Who he was mattered not to the woman. He was still her son. He could be a full Dialga and still receive her blessings… Even if he couldn't fit in the house.

" _My, that was an odd train of thought."_ Calia thought to herself, having come to an image of a Dialga attempting to fit inside her front door.

Professor Oak finally managed to get to his PC and accept the call. His hair and clothes were messy and his outer coat had burn and tear marks all over it. "Yes, yes, I'm here, what is it?" he asked hurriedly.

Amber laughed. "What happened, old man? Got in a fight?"

Professor Oak held up a familiar device. "Did your eevee just call me an old man again?" he asked.

"...Nooooo…" Amber muttered.

"Yes," Riley confirmed, and Amber smacked him immediately as a consequence. "Oak, we need to have a discussion. My pokedex was taken from me by a member of the criminal organization that seems to be running independently of team Rocket."

Mesa and Calia looked over at Riley, startled at his sudden change in demeanor. Amber was used to it, and so failed to react, but the two women mostly seemed to see the witty and confident warrior that he was when not talking to someone of authority.

Mesa frowned until she thought of a potential reason for this: His being taught by a metagross. The walking computer that the species is would probably have that sort of influence on the guy.

"...Your pokedex was taken!?" Oak shouted, loud enough to cause Riley to rub his right ear with his hand. "By who!?"

"This nasty piece of work named Ember." Riley supplied. "Uses fire, makes weird physical weapons out of it, and these weird bone and magma monsters."

"We need to know why the pokedex would be taken," Mesa added.

Oak sighed, remarkably calm about the situation on the outside. On the inside, he was panicking so badly he feared he would have a heart attack. "Do you two know what exactly a pokedex is?" he asked.

"It's a pokemon encyclopedia," Mesa responded immediately. Riley closed his mouth, which had opened to answer (incorrectly), and looked at her.

Oak scowled. "It is much more than a simple encyclopedia, young lady," he informed her with a tense voice. "Tell me, if it was so simple, why do you think they are always empty originally?"

Mesa blinked, and stopped. Riley shrugged, not having a clue either.

"The pokedex is an incredibly powerful computer and data analyzing device." the professor explained "In fact, the data it takes is immense. It scans the entire pokemon, and scans pokemon of its species as well. Each time a trainer uses the pokedex to refresh their memory on the **available** data on pokemon, the dex scans the pokemon again and takes new data. The technology is the most powerful to date in our world! Everything from the DNA structure to the most likely instinctual habits is calculated based on the data that the pokedex is capable of taking."

"Wait…" Riley muttered, his mind catching the professor's emphasis on 'available', "Then why isn't that information available when people use it?"

"Mostly because the pokedex's true value is meant to be hidden." Professor Oak's voice was lower now. Nobody had heard his explanation earlier other than the present people because the others were across the room and nobody was shouting anymore, thankfully.

"Why?" Riley asked.

"Because that information can be **dangerous** ," Oak said grimly. "If this organization learned what data could be found within the pokedex, and somehow acquired the equipment to acquire it, they could use it for all sorts of nefarious purposes. With that information, any engineer can build a device to use it. Brain patterns and signals are included in that information."

Mesa flinched, remembering Ember's words: " _I, dear, am first and foremost an inventor. And that is the most powerful position one can have. An inventor can eventually overcome_ _ **anything**_ _! Even the gods."_

"She's building something." Mesa muttered, "She said that she could overcome the gods."

Riley tensed as Mesa made the connection. He gritted his teeth, considering the implications. "I don't see how. I've never used my pokedex on a legendary." he commented, "And I doubt it would even work on the Guardians, because they're human."

"...What guardians?" Oak asked before Calia could.

"Oh, just these mega-powerful human guys and gals that have been around lately." Amber replied, causing Oak to immediately consult the translator he still held "Xerneas seemed to be scared of the Guardian of Life, but she seemed kind of harmless on the outside."

Oak muttered and showed what the translator had said for confirmation.

"She said 'mega', professor, not 'ultra'." Riley supplied, and the professor excitedly wrote that down.

"And that's Xerneas, not Xephos," Mesa added. The professor wrote that down as well, and then froze.

"...Why didn't you tell me you met Xerneas?" he asked far too loudly, causing other trainers in the room to suddenly get **very** restless.

"Professor!" Mesa hissed.

He jolted as he realized what he had done, and Mesa turned to keep her back to Riley. "I'll hold the rabid trainers off." She said flatly "You continue talking. You're good at that."

"Got it." Riley nodded. "Was there anything else I should know, professor?"

"I will be having a private meeting with several other professors and police officers and raising awareness of the danger because of this data." Professor Oak decided on the spot "We will need to be cautious so that no other criminals learn of this, of course…"

"Got it." Riley nodded again. "I'll call Jenny and ask her whether I should change course."

Oaks grim expression became even more pronounced. "Then that's that, I'm afraid." Oak closed his eyes and sighed. "It seems we are going to have to crack down on this organization."

"You can count on me," Riley said, slamming his fist into his chest and grinning. The professor shut off his feed, leaving Riley to face his mother once again.

"Be safe." she whispered.

"I'll do my best," Riley promised.

They mutually terminated the call and Riley looked at his phone again for Jenny's personal number. The emergency line was for current emergencies, after all. Then he dialed the number on his contact and set it to his ear.

"Riley?" he heard a moment later.

"Hey, Jenny." Riley greeted Officer Jenny of Cerulean. "Listen, things are starting to get hectic here. The criminal organization, remember, the one with the 'X' on all of their uniforms, has something that they might use against pokemon in general. I'm not sure exactly now, none of us are, but Ember mentioned the gods."

"Hang on, slow down!" she exclaimed, blasting his eardrum **again**. "Let me get this straight. You believe that this very dangerous criminal organization has just become **more dangerous**!?"

"You sound like you're surprised," Riley muttered. "Honestly, my luck's only going to get worse. Do you want me to search out these guys or am I still headed to Celadon?"

"Celadon." Jenny answered immediately "Because we have **zero** incidents with these people in Celadon. Promise me you'll stay there for a while too. I'm not sure my heart can take another few days of near-death experiences with you. **Especially** with you involved!"

"Yeesh, I get it, I get it. Fine. Celedon it is." Riley muttered defeatedly "You know, I think… Some rest might actually be nice."

"Finally. Something sensible leaves your mouth when we discuss danger." Jenny grumbled "Just head that way tomorrow. Tonight, you get a hotel and a shower and everything we can possibly give you if you promise to **stop nearly dying on me**!"

"Yikes… You know, I don't pick these fights…" Riley defended himself.

"Tonight, you rest, tomorrow, you head for Celadon to begin a vacation," Jenny stated before hanging up. **Click**.

Riley stared at the phone for a while as Mesa appeared by his shoulder again and looked down at it. "I heard that last bit." was all she could comment. Riley nodded mutely and sighed.

"Yellow's turn," he said. Mesa and Amber started, eyes widening slightly comically before Mesa took a step back.

"Go for it. I'm going to check on the others." she decided.

"Bailing." Amber leapt straight from Riley's shoulder to Mesa's, and the two got away scot free. Amber balanced on her haunches and covered her ears with her forepaws as the two girls fled to find the others, who were by the couches still. Some trainers had taken to watching Kurenai read the book, or to admiring Gauge's wings. Gauge, of course, was totally ignoring them.

Riley listened to a male trainer actually exclaim 'so cool!' when he saw the wings before he turned back and dismissed his friends' odd behavior in favor of dialing Yellow's number. She picked up on the second ring, looking surprised. "Riley?" she asked.

"Hi."

"..."

"..."

"That's it?" Yellow asked, tense. "'Hi'?"

"...Were you expecting more than that?" Riley asked, digging himself deeper into his situation unknowingly. He had certainly dug himself deep enough for the pit to serve as a grave anyways. And yet… "Honestly, I thought you'd get bored of hearing how close I've come to dying again."

Every girl in the room, pokemon or human, whether they knew Riley or not, whether they could hear the conversation or not, could have sworn that the room's temperature had suddenly dropped ten degrees.

"..." Yellow's stare could freeze a magmortar, but Riley didn't notice in the slightest. "Listen, we just figured we'd give you an update." Riley continued slowly "We're headed to Celadon City next, and I've been ordered to take a long rest by Jenny. And, you know, to mention that I am still alive."

It was at that point that Yellow noticed something in her friend's expression. Something new. Something that calmed her considerably as she considered it. "Riley…" she whispered "Are you… Tired?"

He blinked slowly and shook his head. "Fighting magma bone monsters was pretty tough." he admitted, "And Ember almost had me beat."

"Ember?" Yellow asked, "The one who got away from you?"

"Yeah… She somehow started creating things made out of fire, stuff that turned into magma, bone, and this weird silver metal filled with orange energy." Riley looked down, his eyes half closed. "She almost got me with those things." he muttered "Not that I'm not used to it by now, but… Yeah, I'm tired."

He met her eyes again. "How have you been holding up?" he asked slowly.

Yellow looked uncomfortable. "I've been safe for a long time now, since I… Left," she muttered, feeling a sudden surge of guilt. Why guilt? Why now? Yellow gritted her teeth in a way she hoped wouldn't alert Riley. She wasn't supposed to be feeling guilt right now for doing her duty. "But the gym leaders have been called to a meeting in Celadon, so… I'll be there very soon. I was arranging for transport just now, and I'll be over there in maybe five days."

Riley brightened considerably. "We can meet there." he breathed, relieved. "It's been a while since I've seen you in person. I know everyone will be overjoyed to meet you. Except maybe Gauge, he's probably going to scoff at you at first because so far I'm the only human he trusts besides Mesa. I don't know exactly why he trusted Mesa right off the bat."

"Any new pokemon decide to join you?" Yellow asked. Riley nodded and pointed over to the crowd.

"We happened to find Kurenai's brother, Kazekai," he said, pointing out the absol next to Kurenai. "He was enslaved by a man named Pariah, who was using dark balls."

This bombshell left Yellow with her hands cupped over her mouth in horror. She had not often come across dark balls, but when she had, she could hardly stand the strings of thoughts erupting from the enslaved pokemon that she couldn't tune out; Those thoughts were too loud and too violent and hate filled… In fact, most of them were completely incoherent. Just pure rage and bloodlust reaching her mind through her connection to the minds and hearts of pokemon. She had taken down each dark ball user she had found, and they were relatively easy for her to find because of the roaring in her mind that appeared when a pokemon affected by a dark ball was nearby.

"Exactly." Riley nodded. "I broke his dark ball, but the other one I broke was just a recolored ultra ball that contained his sigilyph. I've... I've never seen a pokemon act just as badly as humans…"

Yellow realized that Riley was hurt by this revelation that, rare as it was, pokemon could be just as bad as humans could when they wanted to be. She grimaced. Even for her, who had much more experience with the human side of things than Riley, had very few moments in which she meant truly bad pokemon. Not knowing how exactly to console him, she settled for a sympathetic gaze.

Riley looked down. "I failed to save the other four pokemon in the dark balls as a result," he whispered, and he didn't continue that train of thought.

Yellow needed to change the topic. "So the other pokemon you got to come with you was this 'Mesa'?" she asked, "Who's that?"

Riley brightened considerably. "Nope!" He said in a much more cheerful tone. He turned away from the screen and pointed straight at the dark skinned girl. "That's her. She showed up a while back, and started traveling with us"

Yellow stiffened.

"She's pretty nice. Not that she's afraid to whack me over the head when I do something stupid. Wakes me up, actually, and she's just like me."

"...You… You…" Yellow whispered.

Mesa's instincts kicked into gear and she turned to view the conversation. She saw Yellow gaping directly at her before turning her gaze slowly over to her. She looked at the rest of the girls in the room, pokemon and human alike. "I suggest we cover our ears," she said, bringing her fingers up and promptly plugging her ears.

The rest of the girls reacted instantly, plugging their own through various methods. Whether they cupped their hands over their ears or used their fingers, or in the pokemon's' cases, either folded their ears over or adopted a defensive position with their paws over their ears. This left the males of the room feeling incredibly mystified.

Mesa saw Kazekai and Gauge looking about confusedly, wondering what the girls were doing. Poor saps.

" **YOU REPLACED ME!?** "

Gauge and Kazekai instinctively covered their ears as a response to the incredibly loud shriek, but it was too late for the boys. Swirls for eyes, they were left to suffer through the ringing in their ears. Mesa released one ear, a big risk in itself, and raised it in a 'wait' gesture before plugging her ear again.

" **YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHY I'M UPSET, RILEY! DID YOU FINALLY GET BORED WITHOUT ME AROUND!? WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU EVEN FIND HER!? SHE DRESSES LIKE SHE'S GOT SOMETHING TO BLOODY PROVE! LIKE… LIKE… LIKE SHE'S SOME SORT OF MOVIE CHARACTER MEANT TO STUN ALL THE GUYS WHO WATCH HER!** "

Mesa again risked the 'wait' sign. Her ears were starting to ring even with her ears plugged.

" **Oh, I see what's going on here, don't think I don't! This is some sort of messed up trick, isn't it!? I doubt you just FIND a girl that freaking pretty out in the open! Not even YOU are that lucky, so where'd you go to bloody find her, huh!?** "

Mesa nodded while her ears were plugged. The girl's voice was going down. She removed her fingers from her ears, and the rest of the girls followed suit, checking up on the boys and finding them in various states of disarray, with the exception of the boy using headphones and listening to music, who hadn't even noticed.

"That kid must have really screwed up." a girl with pink hair commented.

"No kidding." a girl with green hair next to her said. Their clothes matched their hair, but the clothing on each girl was the same and so was the hairstyle. Like color coded twins.

"Oh don't even start with me, Riley! I know you're too busy getting yourself freaking **killed** to get yourself someone like that. I don't believe she was even traveling with you in the first place at this point! I guess you just pointed to the most pretty girl you could see when you called me! How long are you going to guilt me over doing my damn job!?"

Riley blinked away his exhaustion, straightening. He felt stares, probably because he was still standing. Granted, his ears needed some restoring, but that was hardly something that couldn't be fixed. His tired look suddenly shifted, and Yellow froze. That was more of a piercing glare than anything.

"I met Mesa on the path to Vermillion, and we had a dual. It was a tie," he explained, his finger tapping at his quarterstaff. Yellow blinked in shock while Riley continued: "Mesa's managed to save my life, actually put a name to my abilities, and so far, has respected my abilities more than you ever did."

Mesa walked over, deciding to end this now. She was slightly impressed by the boy who stood beside her now, as he had managed to not have his ears destroyed by the verbal lashing he had just received. "I fear that there have been a few misconceptions on your part, Yellow," she said.

Yellow glared at her. "Oh yeah?" she asked, still hostile.

"Yes. I did join Riley in his journey several days ago. Your assumptions about where he found me are incorrect. Riley and I are alike in many ways, including the origin of our abilities." Mesa explained. Yellow's glare slowly started fading away over time. "I have my doubts this guy has the forethought to make me some sort of replacement, and to my knowledge, you left him to have his journey alone, while in danger yourself, many weeks ago. You and I have nothing to do with each other."

Yellow slowly calmed down, and Riley was immensely grateful. "Thanks, Mesa-" he started.

 **Clank!**

Riley was on the ground, releasing a pained whine with a nasty looking bump on his head. Mesa's fist was where his head should have been. "Dense male," she growled. "Yellow may have made some serious assumptions, but let's be honest, you've been as stupid as possible when talking to her thus far. Both of you are at fault."

Yellow blinked, having not expected that turn of events. Then, she felt a surge of mirth within her that she struggled to destroy before it got out of hand. She failed. Giggling, she looked at mesa. "Finally, someone who's willing to give him a good smack on the head and do some real damage," she commented. "And you know what, I completely failed to notice Amber on your shoulder. You **have** to be trustworthy for that ball of sass to be anywhere near you instead of Riley."

"Took you long enough," Mesa grunted, honestly not happy with either of the teenagers. "No, you don't get to kill him when you get to Celadon."

Yellow pouted, and then she laughed at her own motion, signifying that it was intended as a joke. Mesa found it humorous as well, threatening to crack the serious position she held at the moment. She would have preferred not to burst out laughing amongst a lot of boys. For some reason, boys seemed to find her attractive. Laughter out in the open like this sometimes encouraged the dense little buggers to approach her and try to strike a conversation.

"So you two are alike, then?" Yellow asked. "Moving freakishly fast, etcetera?"

Mesa shook her head. "No. I was raised by Groudon, not Dialga," she responded quickly. Yellow, startled, did not say a word. Mesa decided to continue: "I consider Groudon to be my father, actually."

Yellow got her voice back. "But what does that have to do with your abilities?" she asked.

"When we were young, both Riley and I had special items bonded to us," she explained. "When Groudon found me, he fused me with a drought stone that he himself built and took me in. I can only assume that even though Riley doesn't remember it, he was bound to Dialga's Adamant Orb. Like me, he is physically part legendary."

"Woah, hang on." Yellow held her hands out in front of her in the universal 'wait' gesture. "You lost me at 'part legendary'."

"It is as I said." Mesa proclaimed "We have the power to shift into forms in which both our legendary fathers' forms and our own forms mix into an anthropomorphic form of sorts. However, Riley has not taken his 'true' form for his entire life. His body almost rejects it now. I will be trying to train him to take it, but his godfather is… Well, a very powerful god. Groudon is a god, yes, but Dialga is more powerful than my father, and so, Riley is ultimately more powerful than me."

"...Wow." Yellow muttered. "I would like to see that."

Mesa allowed herself a smirk. "Who, Riley or me?" she asked in a teasing tone.

Yellow hadn't thought of that at all, but envisioning him with Dialga's armor on his chest and with the metal running across his limbs, possibly having huge claws and… Maybe blue hair? The image she made for herself was pretty impressive looking.

Mesa raised an eyebrow at the girl's silence… And the heated cheeks. "Hey, I know it's a nice thought, but is it fair to say he friendzoned you already?" she asked, using the same tone.

Yellow jolted out of her thoughts at the jab. It did not feel malicious, but Yellow was still hurt by it. Riley was certainly her friend. However, Yellow had no idea what else to think about him. He was too infuriating. Still, if Mesa was going to joke about something that, as far as Yellow was actually aware, didn't happen in the first place, then why not play along?

Her shoulders slumped. "It's not fair." she mock-complained. "Boys aren't supposed to friendzone girls. It's against the natural order of things."

Mesa was certainly feeling a spark of friendship with the girl. Smiling, she added: "To be fair, Riley's been breaking the natural order of things from day one. How many times has he cheated death again?"

"When I lost count, I started ordering him to cut it out," Yellow stated.

"...He really is some kind of moron, isn't he." Mesa commented after a moment, looking at the boy on the ground.

"Ow." Riley stood up rather easily, to the girls' surprise. "You keep hitting me, Mesa," he commented. "Not that I'm complaining, honestly."

"I think I've smacked him so many times he's started to get used to it," Amber commented. Yellow could not read Amber's mind over the phone, which caused her to frown while Mesa mentally considered the possibility that Riley really had been indoctrinated after such treatment to be perfectly fine with it. Amber must slap him across the face more often than she thought.

Mesa vowed not to strike him unless he really deserved it. The problem was that she figured that Amber did follow those guidelines, and she still hit him a lot. And her first instinct was to hit something if it was being irritating.

"Seriously, though." Yellow said "I am intrigued by these other forms you might have… As is your new fanbase you've managed to develop by talking about it too loudly."

Mesa turned, finding every trainer from the room standing around her and Riley. Gauge was actually keeping the crowd from getting any nearer, flaring his wings and setting them aglow with electricity, making a rather effective wall with his electrified wingspan. "...Yeah. So I do." Mesa muttered. "Well, it's not like I was keeping it that much of a secret anyways."

"Um… I was supposed to keep a few things quiet about myself, but I don't think my powers were one of those things." Riley pointed out. "And if I tried to shift here, Mesa would probably stop me like last time."

"Oh, drop the look," Mesa growled in his direction.

"What look? There wasn't a look." Riley said innocently.

"There was too a look. You gave me a look." Mesa insisted.

"Geez." the green twin muttered.

"Get a room" the pink twin added.

Both godchildren glared at the girls, before Mesa sighed. "Alright." she decided, and stepped forward. Gauge's wild electricity arced onto her when she passed him and as he folded his wings, but it did nothing to her. She was already summoning the ground typing that was a part of her groudon traits.

As everyone watched, Yellow included, Mesa drew the energy she had within her outwards and felt her body grow and change, her skin becoming red. Her clothes still fit her, although she had managed to become two inches taller. Her change completed, including the black grooves in her armor-like skin, Mesa looked around at the trainers that surrounded her. They all held her image within their gazes with awe.

"It's a bit odd that you don't have the tail," Riley commented offhandedly. Mesa glared at him.

"That cannot be your only comment." she said, her voice deeper.

"No, I mean, Matt had Xerneas' tail." Riley pointed out. "I mean, it's downright inconsistent."

"Shut up, Riley," Mesa grumbled, crossing her arms. The trainers around them chuckled nervously.

"Aside from that, you look great." Riley complimented her. "I mean, the thick gray skin that goes down your chest really jumps out against all the red and black. You look awesome."

Yellow coughed while Mesa stared at Riley, frowning. Was she supposed to take that in the way she thought she might be?

"I just noticed something else," Riley muttered, looking at Mesa quizzically. "Even though your face turned red as well, your face is mostly human shaped. But Matt had the antlers and his hair was all different."

Mesa bared her teeth in response. He stopped short at the sight of the sharp teeth that filled her mouth. "Shutting up now." he decided wisely.

Then his eyes widened slightly. His hand went to his staff, but Mesa's hand shot up and snagged the flying pokeball out of the air.

There was dead silence for a moment, followed by everybody turning. Some kid had walked into the pokecenter, had seen Mesa, and pretty much instantly thrown the pokeball. Mesa's eyes met his, and the black where the white should have been and the yellow irises poured terror into the boy quickly. The ball cracked in her grip, and then she closed her fist, shattering it. As she dropped the pieces to the ground, she said "Pokeballs don't work on us. Believe me, trainers have tried occasionally when I was younger. And imagine, for a moment, if it did actually work, and imagine for a moment that I was actually caught."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you think my father would do?"

The boy turned to run, but he found Riley there between him and the door, his staff pointed straight at the kid's face. "When you saw her, you threw that pokeball instantly." he said, deadly calm "Why?"

"I-I-"

"Spit it out."

"Okay, okay! I saw another freak legendary wannabe a while back! I tried to capture him, but…"

"What did he look like?"

"W-well, my pokedex said he was a xerneas, but the picture didn't match…"

Riley sighed. "Well that one's been accounted for," he said. Mesa stepped forward, shifting back into her fully human form and facing the boy, who was surprised at her change.

"The next time you see something like that, don't bother to throw a pokeball. It won't work, you'll look stupid, and you'll have attempted to capture a human." Mesa growled, pushing the boy away.

He turned to run away from the girl, scared out of his mind, but he ran straight into Riley and fell backward against the floor. Riley had intended to let him pass this time around; this collision was not his fault. Nevertheless, an idea came to him. "Why don't you show me what pokemon you have." Riley ventured "I would like to meet them."

The kid started stuttering. "W-w-why?" he asked, his voice quieter.

"Because you attacked without a second thought," Riley responded, stepping back. "It is my duty to make certain that pokemon are being treated well, as someone who was raised by pokemon."

"Woah, you were raised by pokemon?" a ten-year-old kid asked. He looked small for his age, and somehow he hadn't grasped that Riley was like Mesa during that whole conversation.

Riley grunted. "Perhaps we should have been quieter when we talked about things like this," he muttered. "Yes, I was. But we don't really need to be celebrities or anything, so please, everyone here, don't go chattering about our existence. I don't care if you tell close friends or something, but ending up on the news wasn't the plan."

The boy Riley had intimidated pulled out three pokeballs; One released a spearow, one released a kakuna, and the other released a mankey. Riley quickly took his attention away from the younger kid, having seen him and the others around him nod quickly for various reasons, he crouched in front of the pokemon standing on the ground.

"Hello." Riley greeted the two. "What are your names?"

He sensed the boy stiffening slightly. "Spearow." the spearow answered gruffly.

"No, no, not what your trainer gave you as a name." Riley amended "The name you were given by your parents in the wild. Do you remember it?"

"I never was in the wild, bozo!" Spearow screeched loudly, aggravated.

Riley frowned. "What? So you've spent your entire life in captivity?"

Spearow looked away from him, refusing to answer any more questions. Riley looked expectantly at the boy that owned the spearow. He was sent shivering by Riley's piercing gaze again, beginning to stutter.

"W-well, Spearow was raised by a breeder..." he explained.

"Never met his actual parents?" Riley asked, frowning deeper.

"Well… Not to my knowledge, no."

"See to it that he does meet his parents at some point, okay kid?" Riley ordered, and at the boy's fearful nod, he turned back. "I'm sorry about your predicament." he apologized to the bird.

"Shut up! I don't need to see my-" Spearow was stopped cold in his words by Riley closing two fingers over the small bird's beak, ceasing his words.

"Yes, you do," Riley replied softly. "Take it from me. Everyone should know who their parents are if they can manage it."

He turned to the mankey, and discovered that the monkey pokemon was turning red with anger. "If you're gonna make eye contact and then break it without so much as a word I have a lesson to teach you!" the pokemon roared as it threw a punch at Riley.

Riley brought his palm up and stopped the small fist with it, his expression unchanged. Mankey promptly tried to get past the offending hand with a swarm of punches, all of which were blocked by the same hand as Riley moved it from side to side to block the strikes with total ease and a single, solid expression.

The mankey attempted to leap at his face to try and claw it off, and Riley just tipped him over onto his back, where he flailed. "Calm down," he ordered, looking away. Mankey struggled for a bit longer, before promptly becoming tired out and sitting down, crossing his arms.

"This isn't over." he promised.

Riley turned away from the exhausted Mankey to the kakuna, which balanced in place and stared him down. Riley knelt lower to its eye level and waited, not breaking eye contact so much as once. There was a long, awkward, tense silence.

Kakuna blinked.

Riley's mouth upturned into a smile.

Kakuna blinked a second time.

Riley slowly brought his hand up to Kakuna and patted the top of his head a few times.

Kakuna gave him an eye smile.

Riley stood up then. "They're physically fine, all of them, and Kakuna and Mankey are just fine mentally. But I can tell you treat them more like pets than like sentient beings. If they're fine with that, okay, but these three aren't the kind that would be fine with that. You have to recognize that to get anywhere in a world like this." Riley explained calmly. "I have a feeling with a little course correction, you'll treat them just fine."

"Uh… Thanks?"

"One more thing." Riley suddenly pointed his staff in the boy's face again. "Do not throw pokeballs at my friends, do not throw pokeballs at particularly young pokemon because their parents might still be caring for them, do not throw pokeballs at pokemon who look like they will soon have kits. Work out ways to observe them, to make certain that they are not losing very much when they join you, and I **seriously** recommend catching pokemon that agree that they want to join you first."

"Y-yes sir!"

Riley smiled. "Then we're done here. Now git."

The boy bailed, returning his pokemon to hand to a sweatdropping Nurse Joy, who had witnessed everything. Mesa sighed to herself, and Riley could hear Yellow sighing from the PC where she was still watching.

"Should I just go?" the pokemon mind reader asked. Riley didn't have anything to talk to her about now, so he shrugged. The girl rolled her eyes and terminated the call.

"Well," Mesa said as she stepped up to Riley and started steering him towards the couches where Kurenai was still reading. "That was incredibly awkward."

"You said it." Riley agreed, starting to ignore the other trainers. He didn't need to check everyone he came across… They had all listened to him pretty well after the whole 'Dialga and groudon' bombshell. He walked over to Kurenai. "So how are you guys holding up?" he asked.

"My brother is rubbish at page turning," Kurenai grumbled.

"Not my fault…" Kazekai wiggled his claws for emphasis.

"Kazekai really wanted to help, so I didn't wind up offering to take his place," Scarlet explained. "Besides, I don't have a clue how to use a dictionary, not that Kazekai does either."

"So…" Riley rubbed the back of his neck

"So I'm basically doing exactly what I was doing before," Kurenai muttered.

Riley smiled and picked up the bookmark, slipping it onto the page that Kurenai held open, and closed it. "You look tired," he noted kindly. Despite his hypocrisy, he was right. Kurenai was slightly tired after staring at the pages.

The boy suddenly, gently picked Kurenai up as if she was a small puppy. "It's about time we all got some rest without a crowd of nosy humans" he commented. Gauge gave a deadpanned expression and proceeded to lightly shock Riley as he passed, not that Kurenai had struggled at all.

"You **have** to stop doing weird things like that," Amber commented as she hopped onto Riley's shoulder.

"I know you used to do this to run at great speeds and all, but we're hardly going anywhere quickly." Mesa pointed out.

"Wait, why not? The city is so easy to move around in, and I'm much faster when I use those weird metal light things." Riley asked.

Mesa crossed her arms. "I am certain you've noticed by now," she said. The boy wasted his opportunity by giving Mesa the dumbest look in the history of dumb. She sighed. "I can't move around like that." she continued "And Kazekai has joined us as well, preventing you from carrying everyone."

Riley, feeling insulted, set Kurenai down gently and then crossed his arms. "I can totally carry the both of them at the same time!" He proclaimed.

"While being able to see where you're going?"

"Yes."

"Idiot." Mesa deadpanned.

Riley shrugged as Scarlet joined Amber on his shoulders. "An idiot who's survived murder attempt after murder attempt over and over and over again." he pointed out, patting his staff and preparing to walk out of the door, gesturing for everybody to follow him. Leaving the trainers behind and making certain that they hadn't accidentally carried any books off with them (Because after the few displays Kurenai had given of her ninja abilities, nobody doubted she could somehow sneak a book out of here), the large team of pokemon and godchildren left the pokecenter.

"That… Really could have gone better." Riley muttered.

"I have never been so foolish," Mesa grunted in agreement. "Just by raising our voices, we compromised the fact that we exist in the first place and what we are."

"Followed closely by actually answering the questions that they asked." Riley frowned. "I mean, it was polite to do that, so…"

"I think we handled the situation after they learned what we were relatively well." Mesa decided, her frown fading slightly. "We could have done far worse in how we reacted to our own mistake. However… We are likely going to be mentioned on the internet. Maybe people will think it's a hoax. I didn't see any pictures being taken."

"Which is good enough. Hey, I'll meet you at the hotel!" Riley exclaimed, suddenly snatching up Kurenai like he had done before, startling the poor absol and her sibling. "You keep Kazekai and Gauge with you, while we run."

"Rude!" Kurenai exclaimed.

"This is a crowded city, Riley." Mesa groaned "It's **the** crowded city of Kanto!"

Riley just looked up at the 'L'-shaped lamp posts along the streets. He grinned happily. "It's not crowded up there," he said. Before Mesa could say another word he had leapt with the three female pokemon and landed lightly on top of the bar. "Have fun on the ground," he told Mesa before starting to bound from one light post to another with consummate ease.

Mesa waited one second, two, three, four, five…

Riley bounded all the way back, stopping on top of the nearest light post. "Uh… Where are we supposed to end up?"

Mesa sighed. " _He's cool, he can even act cute at times, but he's a bloody moron!"_ She thought.

* * *

Footsteps echoed through the air, accompanied by the sounds of leaves being crunched. A gloved hand placed itself on the nearest tree trunk and a heavy boot stepped out into view, both limbs barely visible in the dark of night.

Sigilyph floated into view, facing the building that the thick tree blocked from view. " **Pariah. The archaeologists are nearly gone for the night.** " he intoned with his growl-like telepathy. " **They will not return anytime soon.** "

Pariah finally turned to look. He had managed to change clothing, dressed in dark clothing. He wore a black mask concealing his mouth. The man had changed from his more extravagant attire into a black cloak with an upturned collar and jet black shirt and leather pants with many deep pockets. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the ruins, which were lit with the flashlights of the archaeologists that were still within there.

"I do not like this," he grumbled. "Was there no way to keep the rest of the pokemon with me?"

" **You remember what that girl did to us with one unown,** " Sigilyph growled back. " **The ruins of Alph are Swarming with those same unown. Your dark balls would explode the instant you got within two hundred feet of the place, releasing all of your pokemon and freeing them from your control. We may even die as a result.** "

"That does not mean I have to like it," Pariah muttered. "Will you be able to take on the unown?"

" **Not if they all swarm me at once. This may not be your strong suit, but don't aggravate them.** " Sigilyph replied. At that point, a flashlight beam nearly crossed them, and both swiftly stepped back behind the conveniently thick tree.

* * *

"Why haven't you gone to sleep yet?"

Mesa's question jolted Riley out of his thoughts. He was lounging on the armchair within their hotel room. It had gotten dark out. "I should be keeping watch," he replied calmly.

"No, you should be **sleeping** , Child of Time," Mesa replied harshly. "Believe me, this is probably the safest place we could possibly get for the night. And after the Sylph incident, the police are so paranoid about team rocket that it's probably one of the safest cities out there."

"Paranoid?" Riley asked, "We'll all get along great then."

"Sleep before I knock you out." Mesa threatened, standing up from where she sat on the bed and walked closer to the chair where Riley sat, her eyes flashing and her form kind of silhouetted by the ceiling light, creating a threatening image.

Riley rolled his eyes. "Come on, are you actually-"

 **Wham!**

"Yes," Mesa said, retracting her fist from the boy's stomach as he lost consciousness. "Never underestimate a punch worthy of the second most physically strong god out there."

Mesa heard a bark of laughter. "Get **wrecked** , Riley!" Amber exclaimed.

"That was kind of rude…" Kurenai whispered, "But I get that he needed some serious sleep."

"At least she's doing it for him and not for the hell of it." Scarlet murmured.

Mesa stood back and watched Riley. The boy had begun to grow on her, and she recognized that he was perfectly comfortable with her usual roughness. That was new and interesting. And the fact that he could match the average pokemon in his facial expressions, the way they look sort of cute when confused but powerful and dangerous when angry.

And peaceful when sleeping as well. Mesa broke her gaze from Riley and met eyes with the others. "I'm going to shower before we get to bed." she announced, walking to the bathroom of the hotel room."

"You know, it's kind of hard to tell that you're the kid of the god of the earth when you try to wash the dirt off of yourself," Kazekai commented.

"Can it," Mesa muttered as she opened the door. "I only find myself really liking the dirt when I go half-groudon, anyways. And no, I don't hate water either. Sure, it packs a punch when I've shifted and am thus susceptible to water attacks, but not in my human form."

Then she closed the door.

"Someday, I will make her laugh." Kazekai declared.

"That'll be the day." Gauge rumbled.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Kazekai asked.

Gauge looked at him evenly. "You aren't funny."

"Gauge, don't be rude!" Kurenai admonished the winged luxray.

Kazekai looked away, uncomfortable. He didn't know **how** he was supposed to act anymore. For so many years, the first thought he had when he saw something, **anything** , was " _ **Kill!**_ "

Now that that was gone, it was like he was just leaving a chunk of his existence behind, something that would just sit there in his past, glaring at him without being able to do anything. Even if it did little to him, it did take up space. It left Kazekai feeling empty, useless. Kazekai closed his eyes.

"Brother?" he heard his sister's voice, and he snapped to attention to see her worried, compassionate face. He could not help but smile at the mere sight of it.

"I… Well, I'll just have to move on," Kazekai said. "I don't have any experience to use when trying to make conversation. Except with you, because I remember you from before all of this happened."

He drew closer and pressed his head against Kurenai's, closing his eyes. "And you haven't really changed at all. It gives me some comfort," he admitted.

Gauge scowled and turned away. Kurenai noticed this, but waited. "Brother…" she whispered "Anytime you want to ask me for help, even if we're surrounded by people who could judge you… Please don't hesitate."

Kazekai chuckled. "Yes ma'am" he nodded.

Gauge gave a small grunt as he padded over to the door and laid down facing it, closing his eyes. Kurenai frowned in his direction and looked back to her brother. "I'll... Be right back."

He smiled in understanding. "Find out what's up with him, okay?" he requested

"You got it." Kurenai nodded, "Now get some sleep."

"Of course, Sister." Kazekai used his paw to give Kurenai a few rubs on the top of her head before turning tail and walking off and leaping into the bed, quickly curling up. Kurenai noticed with her trained eye that he too had faced the door.

Sighing, she walked over and walked in front of Gauge. "I know you're awake," she said.

"What's it to you?" he asked gruffly.

"You're not happy with my brother." Kurenai stated, "And a problem you have with my brother is a problem you have with me."

Gauge started, opening his eyes and looking at Kurenai with surprise. She continued: "So you need to explain it to me." Kurenai told the winged luxray. "Because I just got my brother back and you're known for your short temper and overpowered lightning strikes."

Gauge felt a stab of betrayal. "You… Don't trust me?"

Kurenai shook her head. "My trust in you is fine, Gauge." she replied, "But no matter how much I trust anybody, my big brother comes first."

Gauge sighed. Why did he feel relief from a simple statement that she trusted him? "Okay. First, I'm having trust issues too. Kazekai has permanent damage from that dark ball. I don't want him to put you in danger if something happens and he… reverts."

Kurenai blinked. "Me specifically?"

Gauge flinched. "Everyone in danger." he hastily amended. "Listen, I trust Kazekai. I just don't trust the dark monster that's still somewhere in there."

Kurenai decided to let the whole 'Kurenai specifically in danger' part slide… For now. "We're his family, all of us. And he's our family now. It's not his fault." she started quietly "And if something like that happens, we have to support him, not fear him."

Gauge looked down. Thinking rationally, Kurenai could probably kick Kazekai's ass anyways. "Alright…"

"So what's the second problem?" Kurenai asked.

Gauge didn't say anything for a while. "...I don't have any memories from before I was a lab experiment, Kurenai." he murmured, feeling some emotion take him on the inside, not that he showed it on the outside.

"I don't understand," Kurenai responded.

Gauge gestured to Kazekai sleeping on the bed. "I hear Kazekai complaining about not having experience with other people. Complaining about trying to make jokes and failing, complaining about not getting along with the others, complaining that a huge chunk of his life's been filled with destruction and hatred." he explained, "But at least he remembers it."

Kurenai's face softened.

"What's more…" Gauge continued softly "I felt nothing but anger and resentment and pain before Riley came and saved me. Then, I had to start experiencing other emotions that honestly freaked me out when I had them. Seeing certain people, experiencing even more terror, and then… All the positive stuff. Your brother complains about not having enough good memories. I have so few good memories that all the times I've felt **good** were more alien to me than anything. I feel like some sort of doll or something, following along with the group without any sort of purpose. I'm just the flying overcharged luxray with no actual past."

"And Kazekai… Reminds you of that." Kurenai whispered.

"Constantly."

Kurenai paused for a moment, and then laid down next to Gauge, who stiffened. "Gauge, at no point did Kazekai complain about the good memories he had. He just… Explains why things are confusing to him. So he's taking a complaining tone. He doesn't mean it. Having memories like his makes positive feelings way more alien to him than they are to you, because you don't have years and years of experience that tells that there is no such thing."

She nudged him with her paw. "And the fact that he's trying, the fact that he's working to recover from all that whether he can or not… I think he might be the bravest of all of us."

Gauge was still. "I am brave." he said, "I do not allow emotions into myself, and can thus battle without that burden."

"Now you're just being daft." Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Displaying emotion **is** brave. It's the bravest thing you can do, because shutting yourself down? That's hiding. Literally, hiding."

Gauge glared at the absol. "You think I'm **hiding**?" he asked dangerously.

"Yes."

Gauge looked her in the eyes. They were filled with honesty and emotion. She considered emotions to be a sign of bravery. She considered honesty to be the best policy. And there was respect. Kurenai respected him. She wanted to help him. Gauge slowly closed his eyes and went back into his resting position. Kurenai was close enough for him to feel her warmth. "I guess I'll think on that." he decided quietly.

"You do that." Kurenai walked over to the edge of the bed. "Good night, Gauge."

As he began to fall into a light sleep, Gauge heard her jump on the bed and join her brother. That was before everything faded and Gauge was in a deep sleep.

"You actually think I'm brave?" Kazekai asked quietly, his eyes closed.

"...I didn't know you were still awake." Kurenai murmured, lying next to her brother and pressing herself against him, the two siblings sharing warmth. "But yeah. I do. I really, really do. And I believe you can succeed."

He smiled. "Thanks, sister."

"You're welcome, brother."

Both fell asleep quickly with the warmth being shared between them making them feel drowsy.

Amber and Scarlet broke off from listening in to jump on Riley's lap and go to sleep right there. They didn't care that Riley might wake up and want to use the bed. They figured he was used to sleeping without human comfort items like beds anyways.

Mesa exited the shower to find several potential sleeping places totally compromised by everybody else. Her eyes narrowed. Someone was going to be ejected to sleep somewhere else in the room.

* * *

Pariah's odd arm guard device showed many holographic screens, rectangular and circular, showing graphs and data. "Those old coots that run this archaeology division really get into their work," Pariah muttered through his mask, his eyes narrowed. "No point in attacking them unless they interfere."

" _Agreed,"_ Sigilyph replied, forgoing telepathy for a direct psychic link with Pariah.

The two started walking into the ruins. Pariah kept a flashlight handy in his left hand, while his right arm bore the digital multitool. The flashlight was not yet lit, but he could still see from the light of the moon. No sense in alerting anybody that he was about to sneak in.

The two moved silently into the path through the ruined buildings, stepping lightly up to a nearby building, and looking into a torn up portion of the wall. "Most of these buildings lead to various convoluted pathways that all lead to a major chamber and hallway downstairs," he muttered aloud.

" _Why must you be so distracted that you forget that I can hear you."_

Pariah blinked. " _Heh… It's been a rough week"_

Sigilyph did not appreciate the humor. His greatest ally was acting rather strangely after his loss against Millicent. The man seemed more troubled, and yet he seemed to also find humor in things faster. Sigilyph considered this change a direct contradiction by default.

" _Just focus"_ He ordered. " _We are here because one of two REburst devices were discovered here and it is likely that the other is here as well."_

The two walked into the building carefully, keeping their eyes open and out for any unown. The irritating little letter-creatures would swarm them if angered. Pariah's eyes caught one embedded in the wall, settling in the middle of a set of grooves in the wall. All the pits in the wall were shaped like unown, but the wall only had three of them filled with the pokemon. " _Where are the rest?"_ Pariah asked mentally, looking at the thirty or so empty spots.

" _Either caught by trainers or… Sneaking about."_ Sigilyph responded, mentally frowning. " _I fear that being watched constantly may be detrimental to our ultimate goal."_

" _Not bloody likely."_ Pariah growled " _There's nothing stopping us from escaping them. Yeah, they have freaky powers that change depending on their numbers, but they can't handle me. I have my doubts that the unown know of my physical prowess and combat training."_

" _Don't get cocky."_

Pariah grunted and walked on out the opposite door, emerging into a moonlit area that was blocked from the rest of the path by water and boulders and the buildings on either side. The view was nice, but it did not concern Pariah in the least. He had a job to do.

The rooms began to look the same as Pariah walked between them, eying the unown on the walls and memorizing their locations. Something began to feel off to him. The rooms did indeed begin to look the same…

Pariah stopped. Sigilyph stopped with him.

"No building in the Ruins of Alph are this large," Pariah said aloud. " _We have been trapped in some freaky loop."_

" _Yes, we have. Only the unown change."_ Sigilyph stated mentally. Pariah frowned. That was right; The unown were changing. The grooves in the walls were the same, but the unown that were actually in place were different. " _...Keep walking, but face the wall to your left constantly. See if you can piece together the meaning."_

Pariah nodded and slowly stepped forward. With each step, he had his head turned, glaring at the letter pokemon that watched him with those wide, creepy eyes. Pariah was furious inside; He had been trapped so infuriatingly easy.

It took Pariah ten minutes, but eventually he read: 'The path you seek lies fifteen to the west, and four to the north' on the wall he faced. How glad he was that the unown seemed to be entirely inactive; He felt as though once again he had underestimated something.

" _Every time I have underestimated something, I lose,"_ Pariah noted. " _Also, what the fuck does that mean?"_

" _What else is in this room?"_ Sigilyph asked.

A single oddly colored tile was what was notable in the room. Darker than the rest. The tiled floor was mostly a light tan, but this one was not. The tiles were about three feet in size, which was indeed odd because those tiles were uneven with the floor itself. Pariah fearlessly walked up and stood on the tile. Nothing happened.

" _Fifteen west, four north."_ Pariah thought.

" _And the only other odd part of these rooms is the single tile."_ Sigilyph followed up.

" _So the fifteen and four are-"_

" _Tiles"_

With the thoughts of the two antagonists in sync, Pariah remembered the direction the moon had been rising in when he entered. Hoping that whatever messed up space distortion they were experiencing was not changing their direction as well, Pariah moved fifteen tiles away from where the moon had begun to rise. Then, he slowly stepped four tiles in the direction he had initially been moving.

 **Click!**

Sigilyph grabbed Pariah with his psychic attack and caught the man before he could fall into the hole as the tile dropped from underneath him. " _Thank you."_ he broadcasted calmly.

" _Save the thanks for after we break through all of these traps,"_ Sigilyph responded. " _I do not trust the darkness within there. I cannot see through it. We shall fly down."_

Sigilyph and Pariah moved through the hole, Sigilyph protecting Pariah from falling with his psychic abilities. The two descended into the abyss without hesitation. After an entire minute of drifting down, a ceiling and walls suddenly materialized around them and encased them in an odd stone room. In the center of the room stood an ellipsoid with missing pieces. Many small rooms extended beyond the main one.

"..." Pariah narrowed his eyes at the rock. "Trapped in a room with a single rock." he growled "Typical."

" **This is an entirely new scenario.** " Sigilyph deadpanned in his dark telepathic voice.

"Yeah, fine." Pariah grumbled "But it's shit like this that makes me regret not just dropping off the map forever years back"

" **REburst first, lamenting on the past later.** " Sigilyph scolded the man.

"You're right. I'm acting like a child." Pariah apologized quickly "Not that this isn't bullshit, of course. How are we going to deal with it?"

" **The symbols are meaningless…** " Sigilyph muttered as he floated up to the ellipsoid. " **A leaf? An eye? They have nothing to do with unown. If the unown brought this test about, they did a poor job of following any sort of code.** "

"...Use psychic and get this boulder out of here." Pariah ordered. Sigilyph set his eyes aglow and the ellipsoid glowed alike.

However, it didn't budge. Sigilyph made a grunting noise, signifying the difficulty he was having. " **I cannot explain it, but this boulder seems far too heavy for my psychic abilities.** " Sigilyph proclaimed while waiting for his slight headache to go away.

Pariah growled and began pacing. "Is this supposed to be some sort of puzzle or some such nonsense?" he asked, tense, "All we've got is a rock with missing pieces and a bunch of empty rooms. That's **it**."

Sigilyph could not agree more; This was complete nonsense. He analyzed the stone from top to bottom, glaring at the shaped holes in the side of the ellipsoid and then retreating to float about the room, searching for some sort of imperfection that screamed out 'I matter to this puzzle!'

He found nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Pariah stepped into one of the many rooms alongside. Moving slowly, he pressed his foot down in several places. It was possible that the floor could break again if pressed in the right spot. Growling, Pariah kept up the tedious and irritating task.

Until, of course, his foot hit something. Pariah's scowl shrank into a regular frown as he tested the space with his foot. Then, he knelt and set his hand on an invisible object.

"I found something," he claimed, picking the object up. He grunted for a moment as he heaved the object upwards. It was rather heavy, even for him. "Sigilyph, find invisible items in each room."

" **I will, Pariah**." the psychic type agreed, seeing a way out of this ridiculous puzzle.

Pariah felt the object wit his hand, recognizing the shape. He then walked over and roughly slammed the offending piece in its proper hole in the ellipsoid. A flash of blue later, and the hole was gone. "You lose, rock," he muttered, silently wondering if he was losing it. Talking to rocks… It was something a child would do after accomplishing a difficult task. Pariah wondered now if the alakazam from before had secretly attacked him while he was in battle, causing him to act oddly. "Sigilyph, is my mind being interfered with?"

Sigilyph floated up, a psychic glow surrounding the next two invisible objects that floated alongside him. Their outlines were defined by the glow. His eyes glowed as he hovered close to Pariah. " **Not that I can detect**." Sigilyph muttered " **However, you have been acting strangely. Do you want my help?** "

Pariah took the items from Sigilyph as a response, showing that he did not want the psychic becoming distracted. He fit them into place with a frown on his face. Sigilyph looked into his partner's mind, interpreting the thoughts he found.

And what he found spooked him for a moment. A spark of doubt existed in his partner's mind, and within that… It was like something was pushing at it, attempting to spread that doubt. Sigilyph recognized this interpretation. Pariah had spent a long, long time suppressing everything in favor of hatred and destruction and power. Someone had gone and poked holes into that facade, and because of how long it was maintained, its shell was weak. Pariah needed justification for his actions immediately.

Sigilyph's resolve came from serving the man who had brought him back to the world of the sentient after his time in a dark ball. He felt no such doubt, but he intended to follow Pariah. Sigilyph tried to reach for that doubt, knowing Pariah would want it destroyed. However…

Doubt was a very volatile emotion. Sigilyph knew that if he attacked it, he could either accomplish his task… Or make it unnaturally worse and harm Pariah. Furthermore, if he succeeded, he could do too good of a job and turn Pariah into an emotionless shell until he recovered enough to get back to the job at hand.

So the psychic floated back. " **I cannot fix this**." he decided grimly. Pariah was silent. His partner was rarely so insistent that he would fail. Also, his words suggested that there was indeed a problem with his mind.

"Give it to me straight." Pariah sighed as he walked over to the next room and began brushing his foot across the floor, looking for another invisible item.

" **Doubt**."

At least it was straight to the point. Pariah felt a flash of anger at the word, but this was Sigilyph, the one he trusted. It would not do to fly into a rage now. "...Doubt," he repeated, finding the next item and hauling it up.

" **Doubt, and as a result of that doubt, your mind is rebelling against you**." Sigilyph proclaimed.

Pariah growled. "Well that's just bloody perfect." he swore sarcastically "Help me get this done, won't you?"

Sigilyph did not bother to answer verbally or mentally, instead answering by bringing the next piece over from another room and pushing it into place with psychic power. The rooms disappeared as the objects were removed, thankfully enough. It allowed the two to do the job without having to remember which objects were where, so they would not search in empty rooms.

By the time they fit the last one in, a surprisingly short amount of time had passed since they put the first one in. The ellipsoid began glowing a brilliant blue… And nothing else. Absolutely nothing else happened.

They waited in silence for a full minute, confusion and untempered rage building quickly. The impatient duo's stares turned into glares and their postures changed to that of combat as they prepared to hit the object. Sigilyph blasted it with psybeam and Pariah delivered a strong kick to the object. Neither male found success in this action.

"I can't believe this!" the human roared, turning away from the stone with his hands on his head. His cloak billowed out behind him as he walked away. "What the hell are we even doing in this room!?"

" **Absolutely nothing, apparently!** " Sigilyph snarled, just as angry and confused.

"What a waste of our fucking time," Pariah growled. "Trapped in a room with a glowing rock and nothing else. Nothing at all!"

The two eventually had to stop pacing, and began to rest. Mentally running over the situation they were in over and over again in their minds. Two puzzles and a worthless dead end, fabricated by the unown. Pariah wanted every last one of the letter pokemon destroyed. However, he knew he did not have the ability to do so. There were likely thousands in these ruins, and there were only two of them, Pariah and Sigilyph.

Sigilyph's self-estimate of how many unown he could kill before he was overwhelmed was rising over time.

Pariah was looking at his hands and wondering if he could just snap the unown, or if they instead had a lot of tensile strength.

A period of time passed, and Pariah began to feel tired. Sigilyph felt the same.

"I figure it's near morning by now." Pariah muttered, "Some sleep might be good."

" **Perhaps.** " Sigilyph replied slowly " **However, we must be aware while in this room. We may fall asleep and miss our opportunity.** "

"Maybe…" Pariah grunted, his eyes closing of their own volition. Groggily, he wondered why he was suddenly so tired.

And then Sigilyph's eyes flew wide open. " **We are being put to sleep**!" he hissed, fluttering about and launching another psybeam at the rock, which continued to glow with a blue light. " **This light must be a form of the hypnosis attack!** "

"Weak enough not to be noticeable at first," Pariah growled, struggling to get up. He turned away from the rock, but the exhaustion persisted. "Looking away is not helping," he grunted.

The two struggled against the exhaustion for some time, but eventually, Pariah collapsed into a sitting position, glaring at the ellipsoid that glowed. "Why… Trap… Us…?" he asked slowly.

Sigilyph did not answer properly, instead letting out a growling cry of 'sigilyph', meaning 'Too tired…' He had been too exhausted to use telepathy or even transmit his thoughts in the human language. The pokemon then sank to the floor as well.

Pariah's eyes began to close, his vision beginning to blur. Just before he was going to, he saw a strange sight.

Two glowing green eyes filled the space above the glowing stone. A silhouette of something seemed to step into view behind the rock, and a hand reached into his blurring vision and was set upon the ellipsoid.

It cracked. And it cracked some more. Originating from the hand, the cracks traveled down through the boulder and the glow faded away. Pariah felt his energy come back within instants as the stone fell to the floor in pieces. He leapt to his feet, staring as the silhouette became something much more comprehensible as his vision cleared.

"We have a lot to talk about." the girl he had met in the alley said, her glowing green eyes fixed on Pariah.

* * *

"Are you certain she's in here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is our sniper in position?"

"Tell him to use sleeping darts."

Two men stood in front of a tall building. They wore dark clothes with red 'R's on them. The team rocket members spoke quietly, determinedly.

"Why sleeping darts?" one asked.

"Because if any of them actually wind up dying, I don't think team Rocket is going to survive." the other said flatly "And don't give me any lip. It's time we started respecting these guys. We're going to knock out the people that we can knock out, and get the eevee and go."

The first man had opened his mouth when the other mentioned team Rocket's survival. The first man had shut him down relatively quickly, though. "...Fine," he grunted, picking up a communicator. "Load with sleeping darts," he ordered.

"Are you sure?" came over the line.

"...Yes."

"Roger."

The second man nodded grimly. "We have to go up fifteen floors in this hotel." he said "So we'd better get started. You go on the outside, I'll go on the inside."

"Fine." the first team rocket member held up some odd looking tools for cutting glass. "I'll climb up the side of a skyscraper while you take the goddamn elevator."

"Exactly. Glad we understand one another." the second turned and walked towards the nearby ally. "You get started on that. I'm going to change into a suit."

The first grunt watched the other man disappear. "Arceus, I hate those 'hiding in plain sight' bozos."

His communicator beeped. "Sir, did you mean to transmit that to me?" the sniper asked.

A sigh. "No, no I didn't."

The team rocket trio set their plan into motion. One man loaded sleeping darts into a sniper rifle equipped to handle both those and regular bullets, lying on the top of a building that was fifteen stories in height, equal in height to the room where their targets slept. Another man put on gloves with an odd surface. He rested the glove on the strong window of the building, and slid it down about an inch. The material of the glove suddenly caught and stuck. The man experimented with pulling and lowering his hand, finding that unless he brought his hand straight up, the glove was stuck. The third man stepped up to the front door, a nice suit hiding his uniform. He acquired a mysterious smile, and smoothed his nicely-cut brown hair.

And Team Rocket advanced.

The suited grunt walked into the front door, giving an infectious smile and a nod to the receptionist. She smiled back, as the man walked past her and to the staircase. He took the stairs purely because his partner had mentioned taking the elevator.

Said partner now had similar foot pads to accompany his gloves, and the man was climbing straight up the building. He had chosen the side of the building not subjected to the moon's glow, so he was less likely to be spotted. He moved up slowly, knowing that his partner would not enter the room without hearing the impact of the sleeping dart on the target they could reach and considered the greatest threat or the easiest to wake. Then he would slip in and get the eevee out of the room, drugging it and putting it to sleep.

When he reached the correct floor, he moved to the side until he was at the window with the view he wanted. Everyone was asleep because of course they were. It was the dead of night and the kids had been through a ton and had been assured over and over that it was safe. The perfect time for an attack.

Reaching for his tools, the man set one hand on the glass and drew the glass cutter. A silent energy blade the size of a finger segment came into existence. Without hesitating, the man swiped the blade around his hand, giving his hand a foot radius of space and silently cutting a circle of glass out. He swiftly dropped his cutter back in the pouch and set his free hand on the glass to prevent a dangerous fall. Finally, he pulled the glass circle out and slipped it into the bag on his back, pushing his hand correctly to separate it from the glass and then moved to the side.

He had successfully created an opening for the sleeping dart that would strike whichever target they chose. Slipping away from the window, he set his communicator to talk to both of his allies at once and spoke into it. "The eevee can't be reached, and the boy would feel the impact anyways. Hit the luxray instead. That should be an easy enough shot. Steve, the luxray is right in front of the door, so be careful. The eevee's on the redhead's lap, but is not in his arms. Use extreme caution when picking it up."

"Okay." 'Steve' replied from within the building.

"Roger." the sniper took aim, slipping some technologically advanced goggles over his eyes. He gave it a moment to ensure that his aim was true, and then he fired.

The sleeping dart struck home in Gauge's neck. The pokemon stirred for a moment, and then stopped moving.

"Clear." the man on the glass stated.

The undercover team rocket member slowly picked the lock on the door and carefully slipped in. He turned away from the door only to be slammed straight into it with a huge crashing sound. He blinked in shock at the giant luxray that had him pinned against the wall with one paw, the other paw hanging limply. It growled a bunch of words at him that he didn't understand because it was a pokemon roaring quite loudly at him.

His other teammates froze in their places at the sound of the roar. The sniper fired again, but this time, a very angry orange-haired boy deflected the dart with his staff and glared at the man across the way. Mesa was standing as well, also glaring. Kurenai had shot to her paws, and was attempting to wake up her brother.

"Mesa." Steve heard the boy growl "I'm gonna get some fresh air for a moment."

" _They're screwed."_ Steve thought to himself as the girl said that she had 'this guy' and advanced on him while the absol took a position at the winged luxray's back, claws ready to defend against more attacks.

Gauge was not happy, but he could not miss the opportunity for a quick quip. "I was just done telling this guy how he'd need more than one of those damn sleep darts to take me down," he said.

"I'll do the interrogating." Mesa decided "He can't understand you."

"Unfortunately." Steve agreed. He would have loved to know why the sleep dart had not worked on the luxray. Then again, perhaps the experiments the electric and flying type had suffered through had helped with that.

"You don't speak unless you are spoken to." Mesa declared while Riley leapt straight out the hole in the window, swinging on the glass that was not sharp enough to cut him to launch off to his left and there was a shout of pain, followed by a scream. Then the boy was back in view, having somehow managed to use a ridge on the building to launch himself straight across the street to a lower building and begun the trip to beat the snot out of that sniper.

"This didn't go well for me, huh?" Steve asked with a winning smile.

"Shut up," Mesa growled, as a loud scream and then silence rang out as Riley reached the sniper after having leapt to the correct roof.

"But you spoke to me." Steve kept his smile going. He accepted that he had no way around this. This girl was new to the team; he didn't know if she was going to kill him or not. Even so, he had failed, and he had no backup plan.

Mesa's eye twitched. "I'm okay with Riley talking back like that, but you doing it?" she pointed her staff at his face "That pisses me off."

"I don't know. I think it's kind of brave of him." Gauge muttered, "When he has my claws at his throat."

"Still pisses me off," Mesa growled. Then, everyone froze at a new sound that reached their ears at the same time.

" **Hah… Hahaha…** "

Their heads turned slowly, seeing Kazekai. His eyes were wild, and filled with a freaky mix of rage and mirth. His growl was low and dangerous, and he was facing Kurenai. " **Did you wake me up?** " he asked, then began laughing madly again. " **Hahahaha…** "

"...Brother?" Kurenai asked, worried.

"A dark ball leaves the brain damaged permanently after release…" Mesa grunted.

" **I'm gonna break every bone in your body. Hahahaha…** " Kazekai continued, stalking towards his sister.

"Restrain him until he wakes up properly," Mesa ordered. Kurenai felt tears coming to her eyes as she caught Kazekai's lunge and twisted him onto his stomach, pinning his legs and keeping herself on top of him, pinning him down. The others in the room watched grimly as the absol attempted to escape, growling and promising pain, bone breaking, and blood.

Mesa turned back to Steve. "How many of you are around?" she asked.

"There's a lot of paranoia about team rocket in Saffron, so they only sent a few people." Steve answered immediately "Four. One of us got caught at the gate."

"And Riley just destroyed the two others." Mesa nodded. "Maybe if they're lucky, Riley set him on a balcony before going after your sniper."

"I did."

Mesa turned, and Kazekai snarled in his terrible state at the boy who was now hanging from the circular hole in the window. "I'm not **that** bad, am I?"

Then he noticed Kazekai. "What happened?" he asked.

"Remember how dark balls have a permanent effect?" Kurenai choked out "I guess it got triggered when I woke him up."

"You look ridiculous." Mesa said, seeing the boy hang there "Get inside and call the police while I interrogate this guy."

"Sure thing." Riley managed to roll into the room again, rolling into a kneeling position to soften the blow from the fall. He stood and brought out his phone.

Kazekai suddenly went limp in Kurenai's grasp, breathing heavily. Kurenai watched the rage in his eyes disappear in an instant, leaving him gasping for breath. "Brother!" Kurenai released her hold on him and moved around to get a better look at him while he struggled to his feet.

"Ugh… I… What was I…" he muttered, and then everything clicked for him. The absol started to shiver, staring down at his claws. "I…"

Mesa slowly turned back to the team rocket member. "You chose a bad time to mess with us," she said. "Now where were we?"

"I… I tried to hurt you all again…" Kazekai whimpered, still shivering.

"Kurenai practically bounced to press against her brother. "Remember, it's not **you** when you do that." she reminded him as gently as she could. " **You** are my fun loving brother who isn't afraid to share how he feels and isn't afraid to ask or help when you need it. " **You** are a kind person willing to help, and a **dashing** one at that. Big brother, All this time you've been the victim. You need to let us help you, and you can do that by quitting this whole 'blaming yourself' deal."

She looked him in the eyes. "Deal?"

Kazekai had stopped shivering, staring at his sister in wonder at her comments, running them through his mind. His eyes suddenly began to sting, and he forced the tears back. Crying right now would be incredibly embarrassing, especially after a motivational speech like that. Finally, he met her eyes with a genuine smile on his face. "...You really think I'm dashing?" he asked, the smile turning into a smirk.

Gauge facepawed, balancing with his other forepaw on the man he held captive. He dragged his paw down his snout. "It's hard to even remember that this guy's here with those two talking," he grumbled.

"Hey, Jenny," Riley said, on the phone. "Boy, have I got a story to tell you. And believe me, you are going to **laugh**!"

Everyone but Gauge were able to find ways to cover their ears. Heck, even his captive was able to bring his hands up to his ears. "Wait, why does he get to-" Gauge started.

But that was when Jenny, eye twitching on the screen of the phone in her pajamas and with incredibly messy, straight up unrecognizable hair, finally managed to process that Riley had somehow managed to put himself in danger in the middle of Saffron City, which was supposed to be safe for the whole group, and not only that, she hadn't been notified when the first grunt was caught at the gate, and that the other three had advanced equipment, sleeping darts and whatnot, and that Riley had **jumped** out of the fifteenth floor of a building to get the other two, treating the rooftops and sides of the buildings like some sort of uneven and messed up parkour course.

When the shouting started, Riley set the phone down and let it play out, having covered his own ears to block out the noise. "Why is everybody yelling at me today?" he asked.

* * *

 **This chapter is long because it marks my success at archiving a MILLION WORDS!**

 **You heard me right. One freaking million.**

 **Jango: yeah, yeah, blah blah blah. You've SAID a lot more than a million words out loud. I don't get why a million words on paper is any different.**

 **Me: That, you uncouth prankster, is because I am an author and you are not.**

 **Jango: Meh. Anyways, while he's over there being all proud of himself and all that nonsense, I might as well take over sending you lot off this time. I hardly think he can focus on it. Well, I personally approve of the humor and the foreboding stuff being haphazardly thrown together in one large chapter. That's the kinda chaos I love.**

 **Amber: (nudges Jango aside) and before he starts insulting you guys, let me just kind of take over. Thank you guys for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it. I may not be in this story, that's the other Amber, but I still root for these guys. Please review, telling Hyper how you felt about the chapter and what you enjoyed or thought could be better. We really appreciate feedback.**

 **Jango: (Pushes back into frame, grinning) I'm sure you just can't wait to find out what's going to happen next, feel free to spam Hyperjade's review section with speculation on what good ol' Alex is gonna do to Pariah and how Yellow's gonna deal with seeing Riley again. I don't care if that speculation's regular or of the mad hatter variety, I'll certainly love seeing Hyper try to read the crazier theories.**

 **Me: Please tell me he didn't just encourage tormenting me.**

 **Amber: (Sighs) he did...**

 **Me: I do encourage speculation, though. Spectulation and finding clues and having some story elements cleverly hidden is just one of the things I like to do. But yeah. Everybody, I thank you for waiting on this chapter, and I hope you continue to enjoy my work. Have fun, and good day!**


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two: Guardian

**So this is embarrassing.**

 **Jango: Hyper forgot to write the A/N before posting again. Like a pleb.**

 **Amber: He was just happy to have finished the chapter, I guess.**

 **Jango: Meh. Doesn't make him any less of a pleb. Anyways, review reading time.**

 **Me: Oh, no. You are not reading the reviews.**

 **Jango: (uses glare, paralyzing me.) Sorted. Anyways...  
**

 **Amber: Uh... He'll be fine.**

 **Jango: To GGuy12345: He's got wings. Figure it out.**

 **Amber: Oh-kay. I'll take over review reading.**

 **Jango: Fine. (pouts)**

 **Amber: GGuy12345. Yes, I think he counts as a flying electric type.**

 **Jango: Cooler than any emolga, at least.**

 **Amber: ...Sure, Jango. Ok, West. You bring up a lot of good points, mainly about what happened in that pokemon center. A lot of sane people would probably run. But these are all pokemon trainers, who risk their lives in the open world through thick and thin for fun and friends and family, so... Also, Jolecia? Who?**

 **Jango: Too bad Hyper's not here to formally accept your celebration over our million word count, so I'll gladly take it in his place. (Grins.) Also, I don't think Hyper's actually watched Mission Impossible.**

 **Amber: A fight between Mesa and Kyogre's godchild? It's a good thought, Calvire. I don't know whether Hyper's thought about it yet.**

 **Jango: Yes, continue handing your million word congratulations into my obviously capable hands, NoSkills! And yeah, I can see that. Riley's florescent hair is definitely the reason why he's so easy to find. (coughs) Nice analogy anyways. oh, and Phillip Harbindinger, more congratulations to soak up! Fantastic!**

 **Amber: Okay, I think that's it. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, please!**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Two: Guardian**

Pariah was perfectly still for a solid ten seconds. As was Sigilyph. In the middle of the Alph Ruins, in a mythical tomb of the unown, they encountered once more the mysterious girl.

"You," Pariah growled.

"Me." she smiled back.

Pariah didn't know what to make of that response. The girl was smiling at him. **Him**! "What the hell are you smiling about, kid?" he demanded, "Sigilyph!"

"Begone, human!" the pokemon ordered, unleashing the fury of his psybeam on the girl. After the last experience, Sigilyph settled for damage that would be more permanent, the damage an audino could not heal. The intense psybeam struck the girl's shoulder and heavily wounded it, the bone showing.

Sigilyph attacked again, blasting the girl's arm clean off from the shoulder. It slammed into the ground, leaking blood. He waited for the girl to run away, or at least to shout in pain.

She did neither of those things. She looked at her shoulder, seeing that it lacked an arm and was severely burned. Silently, she shifted her shoulder and looked back at Sigilyph. "Is that your way of saying 'nice to see you again'? She asked calmly.

Sigilyph shifted back. " _What the hell is she?"_ he asked privately in his mind.

Pariah was similarly flabbergasted. "What the hell?" he asked.

"My name is Alex." the girl introduced herself, bringing out her left hand to offer for a handshake. "Others call me Life."

Pariah smacked the hand away and thrust his other arm forward with stiffened fingers, striking Alex directly in the throat. She was forced back, but stayed alright relatively easily. "...This may hurt your pride a bit, so sorry in advance." Alex said, before shifting her shoulder again. Suddenly, a new arm grew back so fast that the two others couldn't track it with their eyes. The new arm that had shot out in the old one's place turned, and closed its fingers for a moment, under Alex's control.

"Has to be a trick…" Pariah muttered. "Girl! Where is your zoroark!?"

"It would be irresponsible of me to take anyone else with me when putting myself in the line of fire." Alex shrugged.

She held up her hand before Pariah could say anything. "Have you thought about what I said?" she asked.

"I think you're fixed on wasting your own time." Pariah retorted.

"Yeah, I don't really learn," Alex admitted, stepping closer. Pariah stepped back. "Listen. I know you don't owe the world anything."

"Got that right."

"I am aware that you spent your childhood in a small town in Unova," Alex informed the man. Both Sigilyph and Pariah stiffened immediately. "And I am aware that you were raised in a rough part of town."

" **Shut up**!" Pariah roared, grabbing the girl by the face and slamming her head first into a wall, punching her in the gut for good measure. He held her to the wall by the collar then, glaring into her green eyes.

"No." Alex declared, her eyes stern. "I know that your father locked you up often."

 **Wham!** Pariah's fist met her face.

"I know that your mother was trying to leave your father with you and was hit by a drunk driver right in front of you."

 **Wham!**

"I know that because of that, you were lost, at a young age, in the middle of a city."

 **Wham!**

"And I know… I know that your town was hit by an attack by unnamed people who brought bombs into the city, led by a man who used dark balls."

Pariah threw Alex to the floor and stood above her. "Shut. Up," he ordered.

Alex stood up calmly. "So you survived an attack, and met your partner in the process. And the one thing that stood out to you was the dark balls that the man who led the attack held. And then, after years of being completely ignored by the people you needed to help you, you learned to survive on your own and then, at sixteen, you acquired dark balls of your own. You even disguised Sigilyph's ball as a dark ball, so nobody would make the connection between the ultra ball and the remaining mark of a dark ball, and know you had any reasonable side to you at all."

Sigilyph fired a psybeam again, blasting the girl in the leg and causing her to topple. However, the horrid burned and destroyed skin quickly repaired itself and Life regained her footing as she pushed herself back up.

"Listen." She said, her eyes closed. "You believe the world is going to do nothing but tear into you over and over and over. And I understand that. Because that is what the world has been doing up to this point. However…"

She opened her eyes. "You are partially to blame. Think about it. You tried to make the world give you what you wanted through force. And you should know that all force does is seal the kindness away. Both for yourself, and from others. You want respect. All you get is scorn. You want kindness. All you get is hate. And as a child, you were not given that, and that was out of your control."

"But now…" she closed her eyes again. "Now you yourself are to blame. You turned to crime, enslavement, and destruction. Now, you brought the scorn and hate to yourself, elicited from everyone else."

Pariah released a long, low growl.

"And for Sigilyph…" Alex turned to the psychic type. "Alone. You were actually pacified with your existence. Then, you were captured in a dark ball. For six years you only felt pure bloodlust and hate, and as a psychic type, you are acutely aware of the permanent damage in your own mind. Your two actual experiences with humans are a man who used dark balls against you, and a man who used dark balls with you."

"The two of you take your aggression out on humanity with no real regard for the consequences." Alex summed up.

The two antagonists were still as stone. This girl… Alex… Life…

She knew them.

She understood them.

They **hated** her.

"Sigilyph!" Pariah roared "wipe her out! Attack until there's nothing left!"

" **With pleasure**!" Sigilyph roared with telepathy, charging a psybeam. He sailed above the offending being and bombarded her with attack after attack. He felt a headache occurring but did not rest until his headache forced him to stop due to psychic power overuse.

He stared down at the burnt and blackened remains of what used to be a human. " **Good riddance.** " Sigilyph snarled.

"Now, to get out of this mess." Pariah looked around the barren room. A torn up rock and the four walls were all that were visible. "Sigilyph, try to blast a hole through the wall."

Sigilyph was silent.

"Sigilyph?" Pariah turned to his partner and saw the reason for his partner's silence.

The burnt and crumbling remains of the girl were beginning to piece themselves together again. As soon as Pariah was watching, the rate at which it was doing so was increasing rapidly. In seconds, the body was in the right shape, and a second later, all of the colors had returned to it.

Alex opened her eyes and sat up, giving Pariah and Sigilyph a patient look. As Pariah and Sigilyph watched her stand up, she sighed. "Attacking anyone else is just as pointless as attacking me… For entirely different reasons" she said.

"Who are you!?" Pariah exclaimed in shock.

Alex closed her eyes. "I am the guardian of life." She explained.

" **The title is meaningless to us** " Sigilyph declared.

"..." Alex sighed. "Who I am, too, is honestly pretty meaningless." She murmured. But then, She perked up; smiled, and extended her hand to Pariah. "Come with me." She offered.

"No," Pariah responded a bit quicker than he normally would have.

"It's easier if I just show you while I explain:" she smiled.

"Not on your life." pariah growled.

Life responded by taking Pariah's hand anyways, stepping forward, and placing her other hand on Sigilyph's body. "Sorry guys." She apologized with a smile "...but the correct answer was 'yes'."

Two loud shouts of surprise and rage resonated through the enclosed cavern as a pillar of green energy originated from Alex and towards the ceiling, enveloping all three of the trio and causing them to vanish.

Pariah and Sigilyph opened their eyes slowly, finding themselves on regular dirt: Pariah registered this and slapped his palms worn on the dirt to propel his head upward as he looked over his surroundings. His eyes flew open wide as he registered the sky and everything in it.

Sigilyph was staring at the landscape instead, barely registering the sky. Exquisite white mountains jutting out from beautiful grasslands and forests and lakes. Everywhere in sight.

Pariah's view was even more spectacular. The sky was dark… When not looking at the numerous things floating within it. For one, the sun was very, very large. However, the warmth he felt from it was not intense. In fact, it was… Quite pleasant.

Surrounding the sun was ten other planets, all eleven planets including the one they stood on orbiting in the same exact range from the sun. Or rather, it looked that way. The eleventh planet was difficult to see in the blackness, but it did look further away than the others. It looked like a black and gray cloud in the shape of a sphere.

The other planets consisted of a blue and silver spherical vortex with a confusing depth, a beautiful looking planet that might be much like the one they were on, except it had a massive golden arrow piercing through the middle that had massive white runes all over it, a planet with water and ice dominating the surface, a planet that seemed to consist of an entire city, with two rings around it that rotated visibly on a single axis, a rather normal looking planet with little water but plenty of red and yellow and green colors, a brown planet covered in grey clouds, a ball of what appeared to be massive roads twisting and curling around each other, a planet much like the silver and blue one, except it was a single color that kept changing and had a clear depth, a ball of pure white light… It was so surreal.

But that did not even begin to cover the true wonder in the sky. As Sigilyph looked up and took it all in as well, both of their eyes were dragged to what eclipsed half of the sky. A massive, light gray sphere sat behind the planets, and to the side of the planet they were on. It was so immense. Unlike the others, which seemed to have something going on within them, the gray sphere just… Sat there. Hovering silently, completely overtaking the rest of the sight with its size.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Where the hell have you taken us?" Pariah tried to shout, but it came out as more of a hoarse whisper.

"Welcome… To the Infinity Core." Alex declared, taking a few steps ahead of Pariah and Sigilyph, before whirling to face them with outstretched arms. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

The repeated question snapped the duo's attention back to the girl. " **What are you**?" Sigilyph demanded.

"I am a sentient core," Alex explained. "Specifically, the sentient core of life."

She put her hand to her chest. "This body… Isn't really my true form. It's more of a casing for my mind, to be honest. My actual body is life itself. Throughout the multiverse."

Sigilyph was in the process of memorizing the girl's explanation when what she was saying actually clicked for him. It was the kind of scale that one had trouble comprehending. When that finally clicked, the pokemon looked down to stare at his body, thinking of his own life force. Was this monster within him? Within everything?

"But that makes you-" Pariah began, but he halted. His gaze hardened. "I don't care what you are. Take us back to the ruins **now**."

"Not even going to listen to my pre-prepared spiel on the value of sentience and life, or my comments on the pointlessness of the whole 'dark ball' thing?"

"Send us back," Pariah growled.

"Again, not a real question." Alex shrugged, starting to pace. "See, here's the thing. I've watched you do some pretty intense things. You've killed, you've robbed, you've destroyed… But the sole crime that I really want to address is that dark ball of yours."

She stopped and turned to face him. "See, those things are basically pointless. They grant you obedience, yes, but taking care of Pokemon grants the same obedience, and let's be honest, you have to take care of them anyways. The dark ball is ultimately like forcefully sedating someone and putting a painful tattoo on them that can never be removed. Completely pointless, and you wind up regretting it sooner or later."

Pariah narrowed his eyes.

"Don't give me that look. You know I'm right. You use dark balls because you view these dark balls as a twisted sort of justice. The world tears you apart, and you respond by torturing pokemon that you can and pouring terror into humans at the same time." Alex insisted.

"What makes you think…" Pariah stepped forward "You can change anything?"

She met his eyes. "I can only lead you in the right direction." she murmured in reply.

Pariah struck her across the face with the palm of his hand. "You may heal, but you cannot force anything from me."

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Alex asked, looking back at Pariah.

"If you wanted to 'lead me in the right direction', you would have done it back when it was possible," Pariah told her. "You aren't powerful. You're just a little girl with big words and a healing factor."

Pariah kicked her down. "You just sit there and take attacks like a little bitch." he declared, walking up and stomping down on her stomach. "An entire multiverse? All life in existence? What power do you actually have?"

He went to stomp down again, but his foot stopped too early. He looked down to see Alex holding his boot. She closed her eyes. "More than anyone should be burdened with," she whispered, before waving her arm. Pariah yelped as he was thrown clear of the girl from the simple toss of his foot, almost crashing into the dirt had Sigilyph not caught him with his psychic attack.

Both of the pair stared at Alex as she stood up. Her green irises glowed slightly. "I can give you a demonstration," she said. "Infinity?"

Suddenly, a humming sound filled the air. Pariah and Sigilyph looked up immediately, seeing that the sound was originating from the massive gray sphere that dominated the sky.

"I shall demonstrate the power I possess." Alex decided calmly. Pariah registered this and looked at the girl, whose eyes were glowing bright green now. Sigilyph and Pariah stared at her, feeling a strange sense of dread building in their chests. Sigilyph tried using his psychic ability to dispel any illusion, but to his dismay, he detected no pokemon around them other than himself. They really were alone. They really were on the landscape they seemed to be seeing.

Then the earth below them started to rumble. It started off lightly, but then suddenly grew violent, causing Pariah to be forced to retain his balance through effort. Alex was starting to release a green flame that made her actual form a black silhouette with green eyes just like the flame. The ground cracked underneath her feet.

Pariah stumbled back, crossing his arms in front of him to protect himself. The flame quickly erupted into a rising pillar of energy that never stopped, and was beginning to grow. Pariah and Sigilyph felt the energy in the air surge, and the ground suddenly started shaking extremely harshly.

Pariah started shaking himself. The pillar of energy was what he was beginning to consider his biggest mistake. Tempting a powerful being to destroy everything around her. The cracks grew and stretched, spreading around Pariah and Sigilyph even as the two were slowly sliding back from the pure force.

Pariah thought he was hyperventilating. The terror he was feeling… It was unprecedented. Unnatural. Unnatural to him, at least. He challenged a being of unknown power… And now he was about to pay the price as her wrath seemed to grow with the pillar of destructive life energy.

"Ah… Ah…" Pariah stammered weakly, crossing his arms over his body as a way to try and protect himself while his gaze was fixed on the dark form within the pillar.

" **I cannot believe…** " Sigilyph continued backing off " **That such a force exists!** "

The roar of the life pillar drowned out any more conversation, as it continued to grow louder and larger and more powerful. Pariah felt himself start to lose his balance as the earth around him was torn apart, the cracks wide and starting to stretch across the planet's surface and out of sight.

He felt himself starting to fall back from the force, barely registering through sheer terror. Sigilyph was about to forget to flap his wings, his focus was so locked on Alex's form.

Pariah fell to his knees, shaking. Sigilyph's attention turned to his partner, and he watched as Pariah fell to one hand and his knees.

The power surged. Pariah slid back several feet, and Sigilyph was blown back onto the ground. The flying and psychic type struggled to start floating again, straining to reach Pariah.

He barely managed it, fluttering up next to Pariah enough for the man to drape his arm over his partner protectively.

"Ungh… Too much…" Pariah growled, starting to slide back on his hand and knees, unable to maintain his ground against the energy. But then… It stopped.

Pariah opened his eyes finding himself on the edge of a crack in the ground twenty feet wide. The terrifying entity of pure life still stood where she had done before, but she seemed to not be standing on anything. "Wh-wh-wh…" Pariah stammered.

" **How** … **Is any human capable of such**?" Sigilyph asked shakily as he helped Pariah to his feet.

Alex sighed. "I am a Guardian," she explained. "I am less human than life energy. My body is certainly human, yes."

She raised her hand, and her thumb and middle finger pressed together. "That, that I just accomplished, was not a show of power. That was a show of control. I slowly released the power in a controlled manner to avoid a… **Mistake**."

She raised the fingers up near her face. "This is what a mistake looks like." her hand started to glow with a bright green light. Pariah and Sigilyph heard a humming sound, and glanced up to see the massive gray orb releasing echo images of itself that spread outward as it made noise, without physically affecting anything. Suddenly, the same color started flowing around Sigilyph and Pariah, shocking the two.

"Thanks, Infinity." Alex nodded. "Now, witness a 'mistake'.

She snapped her fingers. The green color flashed once. Then, it exploded.

Pariah's eyes widened, while Sigilyph's already wide eyes became filled with terror. The blast filled their vision. The planet they stood on was promptly obliterated, as Pariah's vision became pure green and black and light gray. The shadows of the remaining planets behind Alex in the sky were visible for one more instant before they too were blasted into oblivion. The large sun could persist exactly one more instant than the others.

Pariah covered his face with his arms, flinching away. He could see the green energy filling all aspects of his view, filling the entire void of space. With one exception… The thing the guardian of life had named 'Infinity'; It persisted through the destruction. In fact, despite the fact that it was behind a wall of energy, Pariah and Sigilyph could see it just fine. As if it's image existed beyond the very concept of light or obstruction.

For fifteen seconds, the blast continued to surge from the point where Alex's hand was set, the colors rushing from the center point. The white energy around Pariah and Sigilyph protected them from utter destruction, like the entire solar system they were in.

When it finally died, the pair could take no more. Drifting listlessly in the depths of space, not questioning how it was possible to breathe due to sheer defeat and shock. Alex looked around, not batting an eyelash at the immense destruction accomplished so easily, and instead grew wings made of closely knit leaves on long sticks that in total resembled wings, set them aglow, and floated up to the two. She took them in her hands and effortlessly pulled them towards the Infinity Core.

Once she got there, she landed lightly on the surface and set the two cowering antagonists onto the ground, before walking away to give them some space. There she waited for ten minutes, calmly looking into the sky where the solar system had been before.

But her patience was rewarded. "Why…" Pariah started, but choked, looking back down. He took a long, deep breath and tried again. "Why... are we alive?"

"Infinity protected you, as I requested. It was happy to do so. It always is." Alex explained, tapping her foot against the massive surface they stood on. "This is Infinity, what we stand on. This orb, a hundred trillion times the size of the sun that was in that solar system there. It's the step above the guardians. The one and only step above us. It is the sentient core of the entire multiverse. It is everything, even us. And if it wants to, it can protect you from my blast."

Sigilyph and Pariah helped each other up and off of the surface, looking down at it apprehensively. "...Why?" Pariah rasped.

"Why what?" Alex played dumb.

" **Why protect us**?" Sigilyph asked.

"Easy." Alex shrugged. "I believe you can grow to be a better person, through whatever means. Killing you would just like killing an innocent, in my eyes. Killing anyone feels equally awful. The destruction of sentient creatures is simply painful. Why do you think we're so reserved?"

"The… Power…"

"That's it." Alex nodded. "You saw what I did. If we were to make a mistake, that happens. And when that happens, the universe we are in and maybe even adjacent universes if the mistake is big enough get obliterated. One mistake. That's all it takes."

Sigilyph looked down at the Infinity Core again.

"You asked me about my power. Were we anywhere else, I wouldn't have even thought about doing that. However…" She knelt and put her hand on the Core. "Infinity…" she whispered, and the core made yet another humming noise, there was a flash of light gray energy, and… The solar system was back in place, as if it had never been obliterated. "Thank you." Alex nodded.

Pariah tried to move, which was a mistake. His legs were too shaky, and Sigilyph had to catch him with psychic powers when he toppled over. "Gah… You didn't even touch me…" he muttered.

"Maybe all of that was unnecessary." Alex mused "But you saw that destruction, right?" she turned to Pariah and Sigilyph. "Think of that solar system as your future. What you're doing now is the controlled release of destructive energy that was tearing at it. And had I continued doing that, the destruction would have spread unsettlingly far until the system was ravaged. And then… You can easily make one wrong move that is the equivalent of my second blast. Completely destroying your future, and the futures of whoever you wind up taking down with you."

She closed her eyes and walked forward until she was standing level with the hunched over Pariah, causing the man to become acutely aware again that she was smaller than he was because she looked eighteen. "So my question is, I guess…" she looked him in the eyes. "Do you honestly want that?"

Pariah couldn't answer. Neither could Sigilyph. Alex turned away with a sigh. "I'm going to take you back home now," she said. "Infinity? If you please."

The core hummed a last time, and everything turned gray for the group until they were suddenly outside, under a normal night sky with stars and a regular moon, standing before the ruins of Alph.

"Back home." Alex turned to them. She saw that the gazes of the weak pair that she had just frightened badly turn to the entrance to the ruins. She smiled. "Do you really want to go back in there?"

"We… We need…"

" **The REburst… Device…** "

Alex sighed. "Or…" she mused "You could ask the all powerful being of life who's standing right in front of you for one." She pulled her hand out from behind her back, and just like that, she was holding a REburst device in her hand.

She laughed as the boys' eyes instantly locked on the device. Alex had already made her decision and held it out to the two of them. "I think this device will be the biggest lesson you could ever receive." she declared. She got wary looks, as if they thought it was a trap. Eventually, she nodded and dropped it on the stone in front of them before walking away. Instead of disappearing in a pillar of energy, her body broke into fresh leaves and scattered in the wind, leaving a defeated man, a troubled pokemon, and a fresh, new REburst device.

* * *

 **Boom!**

"This is how my day starts, huh?" Kazekai asked, rubbing his eye with the back of one of his paws.

"Scarlet, when you fire, you need to place your target directly between your paws" Kurenai advised as Scarlet instinctively dunked her paws into the bucket of ice water she had been given for the training.

"I did!" Scarlet insisted, frustrated. She looked back at the crater she had caused, which was directly between her and the tree she had tried to blow apart.

"You had a sphere of plasma in the way. You could not have noticed where you were aiming." Kurenai kept an eye on Kazekai, hoping that the fact that he was mostly exhausted would not cause this explosive wake-up call to jolt his damaged mind and caused him to rampage again. "Try aiming before generating the energy."

Scarlet raised her right paw above and forward, and her left paw below and forward. Between them, in her vision, a tree. Hesitating for a moment, she started generating plasma between her paws. The burning feeling began quickly and got worse, prompting Scarlet to yelp as she released the energy she had. The beam of plasma struck the tree and exploded violently, destroying the base and toppling the tree. When the smoke cleared, Scarlet had reason to cheer… And dunk her paws in the ice water again. "Yes! It hurts! It hurts so badly!"

Kurenai looked at the tree with surprise. "That was… Quite the blast," she commented eventually.

"Sweet deal." Kazekai nodded "Now bandage your freaking paws or something."

Riley sat on a rock nearby with a concerned look on his face. Gauge impassively sat next to him. "She wanted to do this, you know." Gauge reminded the boy.

"I just have a hard time seeing her hurt herself." Riley murmured.

"Eh, she's fine." Mesa sat down on the rock next to Riley on the other side. "Training is always going to be a pain at first."

"I don't know if it's right to put her in a position where she has to fight at all," Riley responded gravely. "She's just a kid."

"We're all kids." Mesa reminded him bluntly, knocking her knuckles against Riley's skull. "Except for Gauge here. He's technically got seniority."

"Yes, and I say let her at it." Gauge grumbled "Because you're just going to drive yourself mad. And you're going to drive me mad too, with your constant ramblings about her safety. My ears are bleeding, Riley."

"Agreed." Mesa nodded. "Another word out of you, and I smash you."

Amber chuckled and poked Riley's cheek. "You just got **told**!" she exclaimed.

He turned to her, smirking. "Told what?" he asked, picking Amber up by the shoulders before she could realize what was going on. "Told me that it's been way too long since I've done this? Told me that you're too freaking cute not to crush in a hug!?"

Amber struggled. "Nonononono- **Oww**!" she yelped as Riley pulled her into a hug and kept her there for a while. Eventually, he lessened his grip and held her with one arm while scratching her ears with the other hand, causing Amber's yelps of embarrassment and pain to suddenly become a mix of that and a purr despite Amber's best attempts to ignore the feeling of having her ears scratched.

Mesa smiled, and Riley saw that. "Hey. You really should smile more." Riley grinned at her. "It looks way better when you do."

Mesa blinked, looking back at Riley. The orange haired boy grinned and held a defeated Amber out to Mesa. "Here. Eevee hugging is just about the greatest smile-inducing thing ever."

"Noooo…." Amber whined "She's stronger than you are… I'll be crushed…"

Mesa just shrugged and rubbed Amber's head before taking her in her arms in a surprisingly gentle hug. "Are you being crushed?" Mesa asked.

"...I wanna ride with you from now on." Amber said.

"No, you don't." Mesa handed Amber back to Riley. Amber settled back on his shoulder with little complaint. She did pout childishly, which quickly faded as she settled back into her position on Riley's shoulder.

Scarlet blew up another tree with her plasma beam. The bucket of ice water was turning into a bucket of regular water over time as Scarlet's smoking paws kept heating the water up as her paws cooled.

"Now, for better dexterity, you need to learn how to aim using only your eyes while gathering the energy in your paws. Then, you throw the energy at the target. As long as the end result is you standing in the same position as you just were, with your eyes still on the target, you should hit it." Kurenai instructed.

Scarlet nodded, holding her paws in the water still. She was determined to do this. She whipped her paws out of the water and took her stance, looking at the next victim; another tree. She looked, she generated the energy between her paws behind her, and then she thrust her paws forward and unleash the beam.

"Miss," Kazekai said.

Scarlet fired again.

"Miss."

One more shot.

"Miss."

Scarlet whirled on him, tense. "What are you doing!?" she demanded, breathing heavily and dunking her paws in the water.

"Exactly what I asked him to," Kurenai admitted. "If you really want to succeed in battle, you have to remain calm and aim despite stressful things in the background."

Scarlet blinked.

"His bugging you is keeping you from focusing on your target. That's the point." Kurenai explained. "So. You need to focus. Before you attack, your focus needs to be on everything. However, just before you fire, the only thing you need to focus on is your target."

Scarlet nodded, figuring out what Kurenai was talking about, and turned back to the tree.

"Kind of a rough start to the day, huh?" Kazekai conversed easily, not having to fake rubbing his eyes through exhaustion. "Get up at a reasonable time because otherwise, I'll go freaking nuts, and then as soon as I do wake up, we're blowing stuff up. I mean, seriously."

Scarlet drew her paws behind her and started gathering energy.

"At any point, something's gonna happen like…"

Scarlet judged her aim using her eyes and started to thrust her paws forward.

"Accidentally hitting someone you didn't mean to…" Kazekai continued.

Scarlet lost her concentration, turning her head to look at Kazekai with shock, and her shot went wide, whizzing into the trees in the forest and blasting something apart deep within the forest. "Why would you even mention that!?" she demanded.

"To distract you," Kazekai explained easily. "Hit where it hurts emotionally, and you pretty much get their attention every time."

Scarlet shivered, images of her almost blasting the fake Amber in the House of Horror flashing through her mind. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. "Don't do that… Please don't mention that…"

Kurenai looked at her brother. "I know you don't know, but that was a little rough on her," she commented, but then turned to Scarlet. "Still, my brother is right. Something that would distract you, or otherwise impair your ability to fight, should only be addressed when you are not launching an attack or focusing on your opponent's moves."

Scarlet looked at Kurenai. "What happened to you? You've been nice and kind of silly since we met you, but suddenly you're acting all serious."

Kurenai sighed in response, looking conflicted. "This… Is battle training," she said. "I didn't want to draw attention to myself, and I never had to train anyone like this while we were traveling…" she looked up. "Basically, right now, all that peace stuff has been thrown out the window. I still don't want to fight unless I have to, but now that everyone knows… I kind of do have to. But until we get in a real fight, I'm going to get you to do this right."

Scarlet looked Kurenai in the eyes. She shivered. The absol's eyes were droopy, a bit defeated. Tired. "You know that's not true… Right?" Scarlet asked as Kurenai jolted. "About having to fight? I mean…"

"You are training in preparation to fight." Kurenai interrupted, highlighting Scarlet's hypocrisy. Scarlet winced, but forged on heroically.

"Riley's not gonna force you to fight. He'll jump ahead of all of us. Mesa's got our back… And I think we both know Gauge'll take down anything that comes near you."

Kurenai blinked. "Uh… Gauge? What's he got to do with this?"

Scarlet raised a brow. "Uh… Have you **seen** the way he's been talking to you lately? He looks freaking **uncomfortable**."

"...Nonsense." Kurenai refuted quickly, refusing to look at Gauge, who Scarlet was pointing to. Kazekai raised a brow as well, before quickly acting like he hadn't heard anything. "Gauge has been cool and collected constantly." Kurenai continued hurriedly.

Scarlet sighed. Not bothering to press, she turned back to her next tree and put her paws behind her, wincing as she started gathering plasma energy again.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kazekai suddenly asked.

" _Ignoring you."_ Scarlet thought, the pain in her paws escalating more than before. She had to ignore the pain as well.

"I mean, you do just hurt yourself when you attack, and you're charging energy slower than before, which forces you to burn yourself more…"

" _Still ignoring you"_ Scarlet aimed.

"And everyone else is just going to-"

 **Bwoom!**

When the smoke cleared, the tree Scarlet had aimed for had been wiped out, portions of it falling to the ground before her. "Got it." Scarlet declared, finally letting her paws have a break. "Could I get some bandages?"

"Alright, guys, she's accepting bandages now," Kurenai called, causing Riley to leap forward with the medical supplies faster than was necessary.

After Riley had almost accidentally bowled Scarlet over in the attempt to help her, she managed to get her composure back as he, focusing, used a burn heal on her paws and wrap them in bandages so that the damaged skin could properly heal.

"Riley, you're going nuts. Are you sure you're not still tired?" Scarlet asked once that was done.

"I'm fine." Came the very stressed out response.

"You're panicking over some toasted paws." Scarlet pointed out.

Riley's face scrunched up. "'Toasted'?" He repeated. "Your paws were raw and blackened, with skin missing!"

Scarlet, Kurenai, and Kazekai winced.

Riley rubbed his temples in exasperation. "Alright," he said. "Stop doing this until we meet Yellow in Celadon. When she inevitably beats the crap out of me for one reason or another, you're in the clear to do some training, provided that she agrees."

Scarlet saw no reason to disagree.

* * *

They walked along the path the next day, nearing Celadon city. "We have made excellent time," Mesa commented.

"Sure have." Riley agreed. "Even without jumping around, or running, we're almost there. Kind of weird."

"It's not like Saffron and Celadon are very far apart." Mesa pointed out.

"Mm." Riley agreed. He looked at Mesa. "Say… Are we having lunch soon?"

Mesa grunted. "Is your brain unnaturally close to your stomach on a physical level?"

"Naw, it's closer to his staff." Kazekai declared.

Mesa gave the start of a chuckle. "Point." she decided. "Yes, we'll have lunch soon."

Riley kept looking at her. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was because most of the people he had met around Kanto had lighter skin. Mesa attracted a lot of attention like that. Perhaps that was why he kept staring at the girl.

No, Riley did not find anything wrong with it. In fact, he thought the color quite suited her.

"What're you looking at?" Mesa asked, catching him looking at her.

Riley jolted, caught red handed. "Um… You?"

"Why?"

Riley forced himself to turn his eyes away. "I don't know." He admitted freely.

Now it was Mesa's turn to stare. And keep staring. Something about the boy her age beside her as they walked… He simply drew her attention. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he had nearly bested her in combat. It was such a new thing for her to experience, being beaten by a human. To be fair, the boy was a fellow godchild. Nevertheless… Mesa wondered… She was so certain about having come along with them, but why specifically them? She felt that she would have been just fine surrounded by ordinary humans or just pokemon, but she was drawn to the group and the boy who was like her.

Mesa shook her head. It was unlike her to put so much thought into an irrelevant topic. Celadon was the goal. Despite it too being a large city, she felt that Riley would likely be more comfortable there. There was at least some grass in Celadon without having to visit a park.

The city itself would be like a large park with large buildings and homes put within it. This was due to the influence of the town's gym leader, Erika. The young gym leader had carried on her own family's tradition of maintaining the flora and foliage of the city of Celadon.

It made for a beautiful place, and Mesa did not like to use the word 'beautiful' lightly.

Riley had the word 'beautiful' on his mind as well. He was trying to ignore it.

The word had flashed through Gauge's mind, and the luxray was trying to get it back. So subtle was the thought that he remembered not what the context was.

The group decided to have lunch. Gauge quickly resorted to moving the bowl of food he had been offered to sit close to the group, but facing away. Simulating being alone. The winged luxray found himself gazing at nothing special after he had quickly devoured the meal. Just trees. The ground was level, and there was nothing special to look at in that direction.

He wondered why he cared.

It was a legitimate worry for him. Why should he care about what he was seeing? He'd grown rather used to seeing the walls of a lab and ugly lab coats that happened to contain people whose faces weren't even remotely important. What he saw was totally irrelevant for so long, only the pain and the wings were really obvious… And his powerful muscles.

Gauge gave a quick smile before dropping it. He had a memory of using his increased strength to get out of the cage he had previously been in and gone on a rampage for about ten minutes. It had been a blast, but they had eventually ganged up on him with pokemon and forced him into a better cage.

Come to think of it, if they hadn't had a spare super strong metal cage that would be immune to electricity around, Gauge would be home free. Was it convenient because he wound up with Kurenai and Riley this way, or inconvenient, because he dealt with more experiments?

Gauge had to admit he might not be able to fly properly if those experiments hadn't finished. They likely would have had to continue injecting him with various things to make his wings continue to grow until they were full sized. When Gauge broke out, they weren't perfectly grown yet.

Gauge frowned. That was his one fun memory of his life in that lab, and he hadn't thought of it for a long time. It almost seemed… Dull. Was his memory impaired again? Did he simply have trouble retaining information for long? Was that what they had done to him along with the wings and muscles?

"You're giving off this 'i'm overthinking things' aura." someone spoke from behind him, causing Gauge to leap around, startled. Kurenai's red eyes met his own, and Gauge relaxed.

"Kurenai... " Gauge started, but stalled. "..."

"Yes?" she asked with a light tone of voice.

"..." Gauge had nothing to say. He forced himself to turn away.

"Don't you do that to me." Kurenai admonished the winged luxray. Gauge turned his head back to her, startled. "Tell me what's on your mind."

Gauge sighed. "Just remembering having fun tearing into scientists the one time they left me in a cage I was too strong for. I'm starting to think that I forgot everything because they damaged my mind with all the shit they did to me, and maybe… I'm just gonna constantly forget things past a certain point. Or start having trouble remembering them at least."

"Jeez, tough guy. Got a lot on your plate, huh." Kurenai said with a slightly teasing tone. "C'mon. I don't buy it. Memory's hard to mess with on that simple of a scale. Brain injuries are kind of black and white most of the time. Either you have amnesia of some sort, or you don't. If you had both, you wouldn't even be functional."

Gauge blinked. "Wait, there is more than one type of amnesia?"

"Retrograde and Anterograde." Kurenai nodded. "You've got retrograde amnesia, meaning you can't remember anything past a certain date. Anterograde is way different. You can't collect new information. You'd be able to tell me all about your past life, but you couldn't tell me what you just ate for lunch."

Gauge blinked again. "That's a thing?"

"Yeah. But you don't have that. I mean, it's just you being a little forgetful. Anterograde means exactly what I just said. You'd be completely useless."

Gauge frowned. "Never, ever, would I be completely useless." he refuted testily.

"Useless." Kurenai teased with a smile. "Completely, utterly, useless."

Gauge took a swing at her with his paw, a half-assed strike just meant to bop her on the head. Kurenai characteristically dodged easily and continued smiling at him.

Gauge took another swing, and another, his scowl turning slowly into a smirk as he kept trying to take a crack at her. His big, muscled paws created small craters in the dirt and humming through the air. "Get over here and take a hit for once," he growled.

"Not a chance." the ninja absol replied with an equal smirk, leaping away from Gauge and sitting down. "You couldn't hit me if you tried."

Amber's ears pricked over where she and Riley were playfully bickering while Mesa watched in the background. "I sense an innuendo." Amber declared bluntly. "It's… Somewhere over in that direction.." she turned her head towards Gauge and Kurenai.

"A what?" Riley asked cluelessly.

Amber's ears twitched again. "I must've imagined it…" she murmured.

Kurenai and Gauge were silent for a moment, keeping an eye on each other. Then, Gauge gave up and decided to stand up and stretch. "Alright, you're too quick. Whatever."

Kurenai tilted her head, her smile fading slightly. "If I let you hit me, how hard would you do it?"

Gauge rolled his eyes. "That'll never happen." he blew it off "But really, it'd only be a tap. Were I to hit you too hard, Riley and Kazekai would both kill me with extreme prejudice."

Amber's ears twitched again. "What are those two **talking** about?" she asked nobody in particular "They're too far away." she leapt off of Riley's shoulder and crept up on the two.

"What, you're not confident?" Kurenai teased Gauge.

"Confident. Confident that I can't freaking hit you." Gauge replied lazily.

"C'mon. It just takes some effort." Kurenai prompted Gauge.

"I'm not fast enough for you. You practically give Riley a run for his money when he's just barely getting serious with his time garbage."

Kurenai shook her head. "No way am I that fast." she refuted. "Besides, it doesn't matter how fast I am, it matters how fast you are."

"And I'm not fast." Gauge pointed out.

"Are you sure?" Kurenai asked "Electric types are usually fast, and so are flying types. You're both, Gauge. **Both**."

Gauge slumped. "Doesn't mean I'm fast…"

"Kurenai smirked. "Unless you're dive bombing."

Amber's pupils had dilated massively as she watched the conversation from the point that she had started from. " _What the fuck am I listening to!?"_

"Well, yeah, but that's gravity doing the talking." Gauge supplied halfheartedly.

"You don't have the self-confidence." Kurenai diagnosed.

"Kurenai, I have confidence." Gauge replied. "Just not with you. You're the only thing I couldn't hit, even though I haven't tried hitting Riley."

Amber leaned back, her ears pressed against her head as she tried to stop listening now.

"Or anybody else on the team." Kurenai pointed out.

"I could probably hit your brother easily." Gauge mused, and Amber's eyes gained more of the 'deer in the headlights' look by the second. "Scarlet and Amber could probably evade me… For the first couple tries."

Amber couldn't take it anymore. " **Whaaaaat**!?" she screeched, causing both Gauge and Kurenai to jolt in surprise. They yelped as they twisted their necks to face her. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait **wait**!" Amber exclaimed. "I know I'm totally up to date on jokes like that, but you guys look completely serious!

Kurenai and Kazekai looked baffled. "What?" they asked in unison.

"Gauge-... Gauge said he was… Was…" Amber tried to find the right words "I walk up and you guys are talking about 'hitting' everyone in sight!"

Kurenai took a few moments to register what Amber meant, and then followed that realization by blushing so hard someone might have mistaken her for a shiny. "Wait! Nonono!" she panicked "You missed the context! Really, I swear!"

Amber was too busy staring accusingly at Gauge for the 'hitting' her comment to register the absol at first, but Kurenai got between them. "Really, listen to me! We were talking about my dodging skills! I swear! I really, really swear!"

Amber caught it that time, and understanding finally dawned on her. " _Ooohhhh…"_ Sounded in her mind. But her mouth went a different direction. "Uh… Sure." Amber replied as if skeptical "Well, you're probably way older than me, Gauge."

"Amber!" Kurenai protested.

"But Kurenai and you are totally close enough."

"Amber!" Kurenai exclaimed, desperate for the eevee to stop. She was considering knocking her out now. Legitimately considered it.

"I mean, if you're gonna talk about hitting things…" Amber shrugged before walking away, a devious smile on her face. " _That's what you get for making me think Gauge was gonna do_ _ **that**_ _to me."_

Kurenai stood facing where she was before, her eyes completely still and her eyes her mind completely faltering. Her eyes completely failing to register anything.

Gauge wasn't so caught off guard… Although this was for an entirely different reason. "Kurenai… What was she talking about?" he asked, tilting his head somewhat. "And… Why do you look like Amber just told you your brother was actually a girl or something?"

Kurenai did not understand Gauge's words in the way he meant them; He was referencing the fact that people mistake Gauge for a girl, but Kurenai's mind had already been filled with images… And that added one to the stack. Kurenai's mind promptly overloaded and she sat down using gravity, creating a 'whump' noise. Then, she continued downwards until she was lying on the ground on her belly.

Now, Gauge misinterpreted **that**. "Kurenai!" he exclaimed, bounding up to her and rustling her shoulder rapidly. "What's wrong, Kurenai!?"

Riley and Mesa rushed over, checking Kurnai as well as Amber innocently managed to whistle from atop Riley's shoulder once more. Scarlet was none the wiser, oddly enough. Amber had gotten off scot free. "Kurenai, what's up?"

"...She's breathing fine." Mesa diagnosed "She seems to be in some state of shock."

"Why is she in shock?" Gauge asked. "Amber asked her some things… And said some things, and then Kurenai went all weird."

Turns out Amber didn't get off scot-free.

Riley glanced at Amber. "What on earth did you tell her?" he demanded.

"I'm not telling you." Amber asserted. "Never, ever. I might tell Mesa… Someday. But she should be fine soon, right?"

Mesa took another look at Kurenai's eyes. "Eventually." she decided. "Someone carry her the rest of the way to the city."

"I nominate Gauge!" Amber said immediately, enjoying this far too much. Riley nodded without complaint, draping the absol over Gauge's back as the luxray promised himself he wouldn't drop the warm absol as she dealt with whatever mental crisis she had procured.

"...I'm confused." Kazekai decided.

"Welcome to the club." Gauge deadpanned.

Amber topped off the whole scenario with a few words to Scarlet. By this point, fully understanding what Gauge and Kurenai had probably been talking about, but… "Notice Gauge didn't complain about carrying Kurenai?"

Scarlet looked at Gauge, thinking. "No, he totally didn't."

* * *

Celadon City. There were trees and grass scattered about, and the park and the city itself seemed to coexist excellently. Walking amongst buildings, the highest of which were roughly five or four stories, the group found themselves staring.

"Now, Mesa. Don't trash this place." Riley smirked, only for a fist to land on the top of his head, dropping him.

"Owned," Amber commented happily as she leapt from Riley's shoulder to Mesa's as the boy fell. Scarlet wound up on the sidewalk, landing lightly on the ground. The pichu looked up, noticing that they had already attracted attention because of this interaction.

"So… Where is Yellow going to be?" Amber asked.

Riley looked around. "Dunno. Let's head to the pokemon center and do some average everyday relaxing first." he offered.

"I can't say no to that." Kazekai agreed.

Kurenai nodded, walking next to Gauge. She had mostly recovered, although she actually shot Amber a glare occasionally, mentally cursing the eevee for so badly misinterpreting an innocent conversation. Why, it had practically sent her into shock!

"It's like the sun's beating down directly onto us." Gauge muttered. "I'm overheating here."

Kurenai looked up at him. The winged luxray was almost twice her height. And wider, and basically larger than her in every single way by an exceptional margin. Heck, he could even carry her.

Why **had** he carried her, anyways? She figured Riley would carry her for a while now that she thought about it. Everything went weird in seconds. Gauge and her having a normal conversation led to… Whatever that nonsense had been.

She'd partially blocked it out of her memory, she realized, without it being intentional. Ah well. She now knew not to trust Amber to think before she speaks… Or to put any degree of constraint over her impulsiveness.

As they walked to the pokemon center, taking in the sight and realizing that there were dozens of unique stores in the city, from locally owned art and ceramics locations to boutiques to flower stores. There were restaurants everywhere. So many, in fact, it was slightly incredible that all of them seemed to be in business just fine.

"This city must have a far greater population than there appears to be at first glance," Mesa noted, looking around. "I suspect many of them are within their homes, or within other stores and buildings. If we had come at a different time, these streets may have been immensely packed."

"Well…" Kurenai smiled. "We can all be happy about that."

"Yeah." Gauge agreed quickly, not liking the thought of being utterly surrounded by people.

"Eh, I'd carve a path between people just by looking at them," Kazekai said in an odd tone, likely referring to his marked eyes.

"Could just stretch my wings out and send electricity through them." Gauge added.

"Scarlet and Amber could hide in Riley's bag so that nobody tries to pet them or hug them and stall us," Mesa said with a smirk.

"Mesa just needs to glare at people." Riley shrugged, the motion making Amber and Scarlet bob up and down with his shoulders.

"Use your staff as a walking stick, people won't mess with you because they'll think you need support while walking or something." Kurenai finished, looking at Riley.

Gauge looked down at her. "And how are you going to keep the crowds away from us?" he asked.

"Probably hide behind you. You're so big that you'll hide me from prying eyes." Kurenai teased.

Gauge huffed. "I am not **that** much larger than you."

"Uh, dude? You're almost twice her size." Kazekai pointed out.

"What my brother said." Kurenai agreed.

"Yeah, Gauge, what your s-" Amber began, but froze when Kurenai sent her a truly dark glare that did **not** belong on the kind pokemon's face. The prompt switch made Amber, Scarlet, who was watching, and a confused Gauge shudder.

"What word were you going to use, Amber?" Kurenai asked, her voice still sweet despite the remarkably scary face that she now wore. Even Kazekai couldn't meet her gaze properly.

"Kurenai, what are you doing?" Gauge asked.

"Ah, nothing. I wasn't saying anything what were you talking about?" Amber asked, sweatdropping. She officially decided to let it drop, and it showed in her eyes. Kurenai's smile came back proper as she nodded, and everyone relaxed.

"Why did everything have to get weird just before we got to the city, anyways?" Scarlet asked aloud.

"...Huh?" Riley asked, clueless as to the freaky dynamic occurring around him. He was beginning to relax surrounded by a lot of people who were obviously not a threat. And these non-threatening people surrounded the group, giving him a sense of security, also provided a direct method of keeping the people who would cause trouble away from his group. Perhaps that was why Celadon was considered safe. With the strategically placed police station and what was likely a very vigilant and responsible community, it certainly seemed safe.

But the pokemon center came first, then the police station to check in, and then… Finding Yellow.

* * *

A boot shifted in its position on a tree branch. A hand shifted on the trunk of the same tree. White metal glinted in the light, as the observer watched, hidden in the tree, as Riley and his group approached. A smirk adorned the face covered in shadows.

"Heh. Finally gonna relax, are you?"

* * *

A cloaked sylveon slunk through the grass as she approached a facility. It was a natural cavern blocked off by the most inconspicuous silver set of double doors ever. One of those industrial grade doors with the fancy schmancy trapezoidal parts that fit neatly together in the middle. Large bolts ran across the middle as well, although the sylveon could not determine what exactly those bolts were to hold together.

"Seems to be the place." she pulled back her hood, revealing the sylveon Tricky, her card decks beginning to orbit around her once more. One of the cards flew in front of her and glowed white as it expanded. Then, the blank white surface changed to show a map of the surrounding area, places of interest marked on it.

"I wish Angelica wasn't the one to make this magic work…" Tricky muttered as she sweatdropped. The part of the map that had what she was looking at was labeled with that door and 'obviously evil secret lair that isn't so secret'. "Can't be bothered to make it through one enchantment without making a joke out of it."

She shook her head and summoned one of her cards, one with a black and blue background and a small cylinder with seven segments, one of each color of the rainbow. The indubitable title 'Wonder Key' stretched across the side of the card, which made Tricky sweatdrop a second time. "And she needs to work on how she names things."

Nevertheless, Tricky summoned a card that she knew would silence the effect of a different card, something that had proved invaluable time and time again, and slid it in front of the Wonder Key card and walked up to the door. Just in time, she remembered to summon a set of cards and quickly made herself invisible using them. The cards grayed out, becoming useless for the time being. Tricky winced, knowing that those cards wouldn't even begin to recharge until the invisibility ran out.

She then made the set of two cards float up to touch the door, and that door quickly, silently slid aside as those two cards grayed out. She put all of her gray cards away in their decks and quickly stepped inside the 'obviously evil secret lair that isn't so secret' before the door closed just as silently on her.

Tricky continued walking, careful not to make loud pawsteps. This place was not highly populated… Meaning she only had to be cautious of the occasional human. There were no pokemon out here…

" _Now, Tricky. The most powerful ability of a sentient being is choice. Remember that when you choose to do as you do out there."_ echoed in her mind. Sidestepping another human, careful to use her ribbons to hold her cloak down so that it didn't flap about, Tricky forged on.

Finally, she approached the main attraction. Various chemical labs. Hopping up silently onto an unoccupied table, she analyzed its contents. It was like a movie, how the beakers and tubes were set up. Tricky carefully gauged the contents of each beaker on the table with her eyes, recognizing most of the chemicals from experience.

And she left them alone. They were volatile chemicals, and despite her ability to heal through latent magic, she did not feel like messing with potentially explosive chemicals that may blind her or eat away at her fur and cloak.

So the main attraction aside, Tricky continued inwards. Her goal was rather obscure, essentially undefined, but she knew that she was looking for something. Being in the base of the organization that previously had an agreement with Dizzy, a healing stone turned demonic, and that made her shiver involuntarily whenever it crossed her mind.

Yet, the place itself was rather innocuous. Yes, it screamed 'evil lab' everywhere you looked, but it was clean. There weren't tortured animals and pokemon in cages, there weren't bloodstains anywhere. It was an evil lab… But it wasn't an **evil** evil lab. Tricky's lack of experience with team 'X' made them unpredictable, and her only experience was with Dizzy…

She could only be glad that she remembered nothing of what she did while Dizzy had command of her, was using her like an extended body part.

After passing by hallways filled with computer rooms to either side, all occupied by people playing around with extremely complicated code, she approached a medical wing. The place was seemingly haphazard in its organization, but this entire base did have an odd sort of system. Even with the chemical labs directly beside the medical halls… This unorthodox and potentially unsafe system actually served to confuse anyone who might try to infiltrate it.

Tricky, however, only knew she had to be here. Not searching for a specific thing was a blessing in disguise. Fewer headaches.

She padded down the hall and realized that the windows were far too high in these doors. She couldn't check the rooms easily.

Continuing to move along, there was a large window with a sill that she could conceivably place herself upon. Leaping up, she alighted herself upon the sill and looked inside, seeing an emergency room.

Her breath caught. Sitting at a desk was a man with light brown scruffy hair, glasses, and a nurse's uniform. He seemed almost… innocuous. Perhaps it was the bright red cross with a blue audino image on his uniform, a standard sign someone wore to symbolize their employment in the medical field. His oval spectacles seemed loose, but he did not bring his hand up to push them back, and they stayed where they had been.

He was writing something down in a journal, which Tricky frowned at. She summoned one of her massive supply of cards, this one a simple magnifying card that was see-through until she willed it to zoom in. she then attached a reading card to it, and one of the four single cards with a 'T' on them; Her wild cards.

The stack of cards glimmered and became translucent, before the words written so far began writing themselves on the small surface.

Tricky peered at the writing.

" _Blaise Zabini - Irrelevant Date - Irrelevant Time "_

Tricky frowned. The man went through extra effort to specify that the date and time that he wrote in this journal was completely useless to anyone who might read it. Why do that?

" _Journal Log Entry No: Lost Count."_

Tricky's frown deepened.

" _I…"_ The man paused in his writing, before erasing the 'I'. " _Today, my sister was discharged from my own care. It is hardly the first time, lately."_

" _She seems exceptional in the art of design and engineering, brilliant in the ways of mathematics and physics and chemistry… But she uses it for the 'boss', as she calls him."_

" _I don't like calling him that."_

" _Every time I write in one of these journals, I like to…"_ Blaise paused and erased that line. " _Once again, my sister is willing to throw her life away for a man whose mental stability I am very cynical of. My sister is scared of him… Sometimes. It is complicated."_

 _Why I repeat myself every time in a journal is beyond me. I believe it is a habit. Something I used to avoid such a fate as my sister has been pulled into. I keep myself sane by reminding myself what sane is."_

" _The 'boss', as Ember calls him, does not wish to be known by name. This is abnormal in his position. A reasonable man might take advantage of a position in the middle of a powerful group by declaring his identity to promote fear and fame. Considering his hopes to have a glorious moment right before the end… It is certainly abnormal that he would not share his name."_

" _I am unafraid to share my name. I am normal."_

" _My little sister has been dragged into the mentality of someone who will literally do anything for any reason, just like her 'boss'. Indoctrinated. And I face retribution if I attempt to take the 'boss'' precious weapon away… From both him and my sister herself."_

" _I am not indoctrinated. I am not a weapon. I am a healer."_

" _Ember believes the house fire was her fault. Her 'boss', previously the neighborhood bully, used that beyond my control."_

" _I know my sister could have been better. I am not strong, certainly not strong enough to protect her."_

" _Fire exists within our veins…"_ Blaise once again erased that first part of that sentence and paused for a while. " _We owe nothing to fire… With the exception of warmth, light, and life."_

" _A pair of melted glasses befit for a child in my drawer can attest to the former point."_

Blaise stopped. He looked at the page, a worn out page at the front of the journal entry. Five minutes later, he decided to write one more thing: " _I trust myself."_

And then… Blaise took a larger eraser off of his desk… And erased the entire, unorthodox entry, an example that clearly pointed out the rub marks all over the page… It had clearly been used over and over again. Sighing, the man stood up and looked at a bed that had clearly been recently occupied. It hadn't been made yet. And Blaise set about to fix that.

Tricky watched as the man straightened the sheets and pillows, setting the medical machines to either side in order. He did it almost robotically, as if he was just trying to get through his job to get back home at the end of his shift… Except Tricky got the impression that Blaise felt his shift never, ever ended.

Ember was the name of the woman that Riley had defeated once. Tricky was aware of that much.

Otherwise, the meaning was somewhat lost on her at first. This man, Blaise, was a direct relative to a known criminal. His writing was unorganized, suggesting that he either didn't care enough to organize it, or was having difficulty organizing it. And he erased it… Meaning what? That it wasn't supposed to be found? That writing it was more of a therapeutic action than an actual journal entry. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be found, because this 'boss', completely off his rocker and apparently in charge, wouldn't want his name spoken or to be insulted.

Blaise straightened his coat, brushing wrinkles away. His eyes were filled with exhaustion. And it was painfully obvious.

" _Guy wants to keep his sister safe, but she has other ideas."_ Tricky thought. This was certainly what she was intended to find, and any more searching through this place may cause trouble. Despite this, Tricky decided to take the long way around.

In doing so, she passed absolutely nothing special. She didn't even spot Ember in her search. This in mind, Tricky completed a loop back to the nurse's office.

Blaise wasn't in there anymore.

* * *

"Matt… You need to focus."

Matt stopped staring at his furry hand. "Uh, sorry, Xerneas?" he asked, wanting her to repeat what she had said.

"Fairy type energy is a volatile force, Matt. You use too much of it when you try and attack."

Matt looked back at his hand, which looked kind of toasted, like he'd caused the energy to burst while still in his hand. "And… Also, it is meant to be expelled immediately." Xerneas continued. "What I see you doing is a convoluted attempt to make your technique look impressive as you put it together."

Matt gave a weak smile and a sweatdrop. "That's important, right?"

Both his mother and Xerneas chuckled at him. "While I love the start of a carefree attitude that you're starting to get…" Marigold smiled and crossed her arms.

"Making something look cool just isn't the way of the fairy type." Xerneas continued with a false solemn nod. Matt knew they were joking a little bit, and so smiled in return. Nevertheless, he searched himself for the fairy type energy once more and pointed his hand palm out, fingers straight at a nearby rock, and mentally pushed that energy forward.

The moonblast beam set his hand aglow as it erupted out from his palm, the white and pink beam roaring through the open air and exploding against the boulder, enveloping the area in smoke and scattering little pieces of stone everywhere.

Matt blinked. "That was kind of simple once I stopped trying to build it up…" he muttered, but began to rub his arm that had fired the attack, as it felt numb.

"That… Was too much power." Xerneas diagnosed.

"Felt like it." Matt agreed. Continuing to rub his arm. He lifted the affected arm and attempted to use less energy than before, to no real success; the attack was just as powerful, striking the ground where the rock had been, and this time, his arm stung. "Yowch! Okay, how long is my arm going to be in bad shape?"

"A few minutes." Xerneas mused. "Try using your left arm instead."

Matt nodded and looked at his left palm. "How do I control the amount of energy I'm using?" he asked.

"It is not a technique more than it is a feeling," Xerneas admitted. "You need to keep using your energy until you can understand the feeling of the energy in your body when you're half xerneas."

Matt continued looking at his palm. He had certainly felt something, so he had to keep doing this to his arms until he could understand it. That seemed a little strenuous, and he didn't know whether it would damage his arms in a bad way over time. Then again, he did heal super quickly because of his connection to Xerneas, who also healed quickly because of her connection to life.

Then he got an idea. "Xerneas, you told me once that I could become a full xerneas too, having three forms… I noticed your moonblast started in front of your mouth before firing instead of traveling out of my palm…"

Xerneas shook her head. "Matt, transformation is a very complicated magic. And you only have access to my form using magic in combination with your given ability to shift into the form you have now. We will not begin magical training for quite some time, I'm afraid, due to its complexity, in both the language and the method."

Matt nodded. "Gotcha. So just keep trying?"

"Just keep trying," Xerneas confirmed with a smile

Marigold sat back and smiled. She had certainly not expected life to lead them in this direction, but all she cared about was that she got to watch her son start to grow up.

* * *

Yellow sighed as she put her bags down in her hotel room. It was a nice, expensive place, paid for like the rooms for the rest of the gym leaders were. They were rooms for families, in case some of the gym leaders had husbands or wives to bring or children. She had not brought anybody. That meant she had the room to herself.

Unless, of course, she decided to make Riley stay in an incredibly safe location. She could set him and Mesa on the second double bed. And take the first entirely for herself; She felt she deserved it. And give herself some distance between herself and Mesa. Riley was a guy, and considering what she saw that everyone else failed to notice while talking with said redheaded goofball, he was going to do what a guy typically does when their eyes keep tracking in one direction…

Yellow shook her head rapidly, her ponytail whipping about. Being a gym leader when you're under protection means a lot of time to yourself, which means a lot of book reading… To the point where you explore other genres. She put her mindset at that moment down to that, and then proceeded to squash the thoughts flat.

But now, she was in a secure city, supposedly. Despite the fact that she had two agents that had her back, she was willing to ignore that to actually walk around like a normal person for a while. Now, the gates to the city were wide open, but again, the police department here was particularly observant.

She stepped around in her room, setting up everything she might need for the next few days… She might stay as long as Riley would be held in his forced vacation. As long as there was only one redhead fighter to deal with at one time, she would probably be fine.

She got her things together for a simple walk and maybe some light indulgent shopping. A small smile on her face, she walked out of her hotel room and then her hotel, shielding her eyes against the glare of the sun.

Taking a quick left from the courtyard she wound up in, she adventured towards the storefronts that littered the city, especially near the famed department store. She approached a counter.

"What can I do for you, Ma'am?" the man asked, gesturing confidently towards the various ice cream and chocolate products, perfect for a hot day.

"Just a simple chocolate ice cream bar will do right now," Yellow responded, giving the man an eye smile and turning away to let him make her the requested treat. Celadon was likely her favorite city, with the exception of Cinnabar. The beaches on Cinnabar island were breathtaking, with both bright and dark beaches depending on what stone the sand was rended from in that area… And Ratty had friends in the old abandoned mansion there.

Yellow received and paid for her chocolate ice cream bar and began the miniature journey through the city, refreshing herself on the sights. The trees and other foliage, the blue sky, the brilliance of the residential areas and the shopping center alike… All of it beautifully designed.

And she stopped. Stopped in the direct center of a courtyard made of rings of tan bricks stretching out to make a circle, surrounded by other people as they went about their daily lives, talking happily. Frozen, with her ice cream held in her mouth, staring.

Orange hair, travel clothing, backpack… Brilliant blue eyes staring right into hers with a mixture of relief and exhaustion. In person once more since she'd ditched him.

Riley and Yellow stood very still, watching each other.

* * *

 **Alright, so that was all over the place.**

 **One thing that's always really difficult is making something that would look super scary in real life or anime look scary in writing. When Life did what she did... Imagine that scene with Guildarts in Fairy Tail, when he was facing Natsu, where Guildarts emitted a ton of energy and was a silhouette with red eyes, think of it kind of like that. But way bigger, more pillar like, and making the ground split apart for as far as the eye can see. And green. Green and black.**

 **But with a comparison like that, it's much easier to understand just how frightening what Alex did would have been. Did I do a good job? Please tell me in your review. I hope you all enjoyed, and I will see you all next time.**


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three: Reunion

**Hello, everyone, welcome to New Age, chapter twenty three. Time for that meeting you guys were waiting for. Riley and Yellow. I don't know what exactly you were hoping for, but I tried to make it believable.**

 **Jumping into reviews real quick, because I want and need to do that.**

 **Amber: I'll help, if... If that's okay.  
**

 **Me: Thank you, Amber. I would appreciate that. Do you know what Jango is doing by any chance?**

 **Amber: Sorry... No...**

 **Me: Anyways, we have three reviews for this chapter that are recent, and one review on chapter fourteen that LOOKS like a troll review. Fun. Let's handle that one first, shall we? I'll read it aloud. (clears throat)**

Attract is a fairy type move  
And the last time Riley used the podex on Amber, it said 8 known evolutions.  
Which proves Sylveon exists.

 **Thank you, eeveeenthusist474, for that marvelous piece of information.**

 **Jango: (Appears) Yo, Hyper. Need some water? You sound a bit dry there.**

 **Amber: ...Please go away, Jango...**

 **Me: No, it's all right. Jango, would you like to repeat what happened when we PM'd for clarification?  
**

 **Jango: I'd love to, thank you so much for asking. (Clears throat)**

This is Hyperjade.

And I have to admit, your review left me baffled. I read through the chapter you reviewed on, but either missed or did not find any mention of sylveon potentially not existing in that chapter. Could you please clarify what you are commenting on in my chapter? Much appreciated.

 **Me: no, that's my question. I was talking about their less than helpful response.**

 **Jango: Yeah, I just wanted our readers to know how you didn't know it was a troll review right away. Anyways... (Clears throat again)**

Attract is a fairy type move not a normal type

 **Me: Exactly... See, this kind of review falls squarely into the 'so not helpful' category. It may be my own psyche to blame for my issue here, but I genuinely cannot understand what kind of humor someone could possibly take from spouting random words and phrases. Yes, attract was mentioned, even in a similar context to what was shown in the response, but that didn't help me understand what the initial review was about, nor did I directly imply that attract was a normal type move, as the mention of attract was a part of Amber's dialogue. Sorry, other Amber. Not my friend here.**

 **Amber: And Hyper gets kind of twitchy when something is written as if intentionally not meant to be understood. He likes making things understandable as long as you think about it.  
**

 **Me: Which is totally different. Now, onto regular reviews.**

 **Amber: I'm very glad you're back to normal, West. It's relieving to know that you're human again. It must have been so painful and slow using paws on a keyboard or convincing someone else to do it for you. I got a little bit of a weird feeling when I read that innuendo bit, because it was an alternate version of me walking into it. I was practically hearing it ringing in my ears.  
**

 **Jango: Hey, it's Hasta too. And you're looking pokemonified, that's gotta be fun. (Grins in a suspicious way)**

 **Amber: Why'd he break down your kitchen door? I don't understand...**

 **Jango: Who keeps their computer in the kitchen when they write a review. Table manners!  
**

 **Me: Hypocrite. Anyways, AveragePichu, Thank you once again for your catching of errors in my writing. It does help me, no matter how minor a suggestion it is. Yes, it was intended as both a reference and an example of a concept discussed earlier in the story. As for right now, all of the characters are actually doing things, so they get their own segments. I typically write segments for characters that have significant events going on for them and in the order they are. That is why sometimes it seems some characters are being ignored. They do less things that merit including in the written story.**

 **Amber: Aewynessa- hey, I said it right first try this time!**

 **Jango: Congratulations~**

 **Me: Shut up, Jango. No sarcasm: Good job, Amber.**

 **Amber: Thanks. So, yeah. Guardian of life showing what she can do. Most people might think 'about time' on that, if they've been reading the vague stuff in TAC2 where they show up. They're a lot more involved here, that's for certain. And... I THINK there's a balance thing involving the infinity core. Six male guardians, six female guardians... And a genderless Infinity Core.**

 **Me: Ask and you shall recieve with the Yellow and Riley thing. Because this line is near the bottom of the AN, you may actually be looking at the start of that interaction right now if you put it at the top of the screen. As for Fairy energy... I like going against stereotype.**

 **Jango: Ooh, is Mona unhappy about her situation in her own story? Can I send her an anonymous gift through the universal barrier?**

 **Amber: Mona, do not open any anonymous gifts that come from different universes.**

 **Me: Mona, do not open any anonymous gifts that come from different universes.**

 **Jango: Spoilsports. Hmm... What if I put a tag on it that says it's from Shakespeare...**

 **Me: That's all folks gotta go read on stop listening to Jango spout ideas like a madman. Enjoy the show, and Jango... Please shut up.  
**

 **Jango: I'd like to see you make me.**

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three: Reunion

 **Smack!**

"I deserved that."

 **Whack!**

"That too…"

Riley held up his arms to prevent a further strike against him. "Okay, that's enough," he said, seeing Yellow pause. "Pretty sure I'd deserve more if we weren't both being huge pains in the neck."

"Riley…" Yellow growled dangerously, "What part of 'don't get yourself killed' wasn't precise and clear!?"

The boy in question sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Well… I'm not dead." he pointed out. "But… Yeah, I've gotten myself into a lot of shit lately, haven't I."

"Angering powerful criminal organizations that are gun happy and experimental invention-happy, and just plain experimentation happy!" Yellow elaborated tensely.

"Yeah… I did do that…"

"Fought and nearly died against demons, crazy pyrokinetic ladies, and anything in between!" Yellow continued.

"...I did that too…"

"Managed to get trapped in a ghostly entity that feeds on fear; You could have run away from these fights and have been just fine do you have no sense of self-preservation…" Yellow trailed off. She could continue going on, but there wouldn't be much of a point. Instead, she seethed quietly.

Riley's subdued look gave way to a smirk. "Finally got out of your gym, I see." he offered in retribution. He hadn't ever liked that she went back there with a powerful assassin ready to go after her at any point. While he wasn't being nearly as expressive as Yellow was, his own frustration with her was rolling off of him in powerful waves. He knew full well that he had gotten himself in much more danger, but it was all too clear to him that Yellow didn't have to leave.

But as they stared at each other, the surrounding civilians giving them a wide berth unconsciously due to the angry aura both exuded for a moment, both realized something.

Yellow realized that Riley had always been a target of criminal organizations since it was essentially his job; He could not be faulted for that any more than she could for doing her own job. As for the constant danger… It was mostly bad luck on his part. How could he possibly go looking for danger when he was busy caring for everyone? Rescued pokemon, like Gauge and Amber and Kurenai and Kazekai, adopted ones such as Scarlet. And somewhere along the way he found the Child of Earth. Although honestly, that one looks like she was going to do a lot of protecting in her own right. Deep down, Yellow had known this, but with his fate constantly an unknown, she had pointedly ignored logic in favor of worry.

Riley realized that like him, she was doing her job. A gym leader is a member of authority as well as an elite member of law enforcement on the side. If a gym leader cowered at the first assassin, they couldn't possibly do their job effectively. Mute was a constant threat, but he was **one** threat, and a relatively easy to fool one at that. And she had taken precautions… Riley had always been aware of it, but with Yellow not around to look after himself, his protectiveness trumped his reasoning. Seeing her without a scratch on her, the boy could only realize that neither of them was right in being angry with one another.

The angry stalemate promptly turned into a hug, both finally greeting one another properly. "I'm glad you're safe, you know," Yellow assured the orange-haired warrior.

"Me too…" Riley muttered, but then pulled back with a surprised expression. "Glad… You're safe I mean. I mean… I guess it's good that I'm fine too, but that's not what I…"

"Meant?" Yellow raised an eyebrow but giggled at the boy's embarrassment anyhow.

"Can we cut this short?" Amber interrupted "I'm starving."

Both humans looked at her, unamused.

Relenting, the eevee on Riley's shoulder piped down, and Riley turned back to Yellow. "...How's your gym?"

Yellow smiled. "Everything is going well. Between the time I… Left and now, I passed a lot of trainers on towards victory road. It was a good run… Before I met you, there were some weeks where I met a lot of trainers who didn't even know that pokemon needed to socialize just like us, let alone treat them properly, but recently there were a lot of good trainers headed my way. Helped me get through the exhaustion."

"It sounds like you didn't do too bad." Riley smiled.

Yellow rolled her eyes. "C'mon, you're begging me to criticize your habit of nearly dying." she pointed out. "Still… You **aren't** dead, which is downright impressive, considering that while people like Red and Gold took down team rocket by tearing down grunt after grunt and then a few elites, you've fought literal demons, a pyrokinetic human, monsters that defy explanation, magic, dark balls, etcetera. I'll admit it: You're impressive."

"That he is." Mesa strode forward. Both conversing humans split apart, content that the awkward conversation was ending, even if it was increasingly less awkward. "Yellow, I presume?"

"Mesa." Yellow reached a hand out, offering a handshake. Mesa paused, and took it. The girls shook hands as if they were making a deal that might change their lives. Riley was at a loss at the serious expressions both girls had. He wondered if they were up to something…

The pokemon, for their part, weren't entirely certain what to do while the humans were talking. Kitty was the first to think that they should be let out of her pokeball, and Yellow paused after releasing Mesa's hand to let her pokemon out. They burst forth directly into the path of the other crew of pokemon, ready to greet the abnormal crew that Riley traveled with.

Gravvy took an instant liking to Mesa. The golem heavily stepped right up to her and looked up into her eyes, feeling the raw power of the earth emitting from her, as powerful as it was undetectable to most that are not in tune with the planet beneath their feet. Mesa smiled at her fellow ground type and patted him on the head.

As the two interacted, Kitty approached Riley. The butterfree had been the first to see the boy out of all of them, leading to all of this. Yet, she knew little about him. He blinked as she appeared in his vision, flapping directly before him. "Hello," she said to start.

"Hey," Riley responded. "Kitty, right?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, holding out his hand to the bug type's forearm. "Nice to meet you, Kitty." he smiled. "You're the one that Yellow used to scope me out, right?"

"Yeah…" Kitty confirmed, a little embarrassed. "I kind of started all of this mess, but I don't know what to think of it."

"Don't be silly." Riley rubbed her head. "All the insanity was caused by team rocket…" the boy started counting on his fingers "The team X blokes that popped up, Ember, that 'Dizzy' monster, and some assorted shit."

"Language…" Kitty muttered.

Riley looked at her weirdly, but the two were interrupted by Dody. The grounded flying type trotted up to the two looking rather happy. At least, two of its heads did… Her left head looked rather spaced out, like she was thinking about something. She'd always used all three heads to speak at once, so seeing that disconnect was a bit odd. Perhaps there was some sort of mental communication going on between her heads. Riley would ask Yellow if he had time.

Still, Dody was still right there, and she seemed quite happy. She started telling the orange-haired boy stories about the best battles they had, especially the one during the intense rainstorm and the mysterious girl with the water type team.

"A heavy rainstorm you say?" Mesa practically appeared next to Riley, making the high-strung (And extremely paranoid) boy jump and move his hand towards his staff. Yellow, watching from the sidelines, winced. There was something just painful about seeing him so quick to assume something was going to attack him. Mesa was even a good friend of his, and he still didn't handle the scare well.

"Yeah." Dody's left head broke the thinking expression to reply. "She was strange, and when she walked straight into the rainstorm after she got the badge, Yellow went to look and she'd just… Vanished."

"What was her name?"

"Kyrie." Dody's right head answered.

Mesa gave a 'hmm' to herself. "...Something about that name makes me feel a surge of irrational competitiveness…" she muttered. "I must be tired, if I am having such coincidental delusions."

While Mesa distanced herself, continuing to mutter, Amber jumped to greet the others as Scarlet and Kurenai and Kazekai were doing. Yellow's pokemon knew exactly what to do; They treated Kazekai no differently despite the marks in his eyes, nobody asked Kurenai about how she got so strong, and when Scarlet described her plasma beams, she was advised to use her powers only if absolutely necessary. Gauge... He stayed apart from the others. His wings slightly outstretched and emitting sparks, he looked like he was pretending to sleep to avoid conversation.

"Hey, Amber!" Ratty called, hopping up to Riley. Amber decided to get down on his level, and greeted her fellow normal type.

"What'd ya need?" she asked, a bit confused, as her friendships were mostly limited to Yellow, Riley, and some of the others in their group. She didn't know how to talk to the raticate in front of her. He was twice her (admittedly small) size and rather scary looking because of his teeth. Even when he smiled, his large teeth showed.

"Well…" he blinked. "We were all greeting each other, and I don't know any of these guys much. We like it in our pokeballs most of the time, and so meeting other people is just… Strange sometimes."

Amber blinked, looking at Ratty wide-eyed. The male normal type reckoned she would give some sort of reassurance, or a response that implied she had something profound and helpful to say. "Dude," she said. "That's how it always works. Besides, you've talked to me, like, twice when Riley and Yellow were traveling."

Ratty blinked. " _Had that happened?"_

Amber raised a brow, lifted a paw, and bonked him on the head twice. "You don't remember? They were short, but they happened. I know you guys like hanging out in your pokeballs and battling and stuff, like normal trainer pokemon, so not talking to everyone all the time has to be par for the course. Yellow obviously keeps you social, but no matter what, it's always going to be hard when you're repetitively in that little cage thing."

Ratty frowned. "The poke-ball is a symbol of connection and friendship between trainers." he declared confidently.

Amber rolled her eyes. "To each their own, dude, but there's no doubt in my mind that no matter how it's used today by the better people, it was originally built as a method of control. It's not exactly up for debate."

The rat opened his mouth, and closed it again. Then, he opened it again. "As you implied. Times have changed." he looked away. "I get it, it's not true for some trainers."

Amber's brow rose.

"...Okay, many trainers."

The brow rose higher.

"Probably most, I get it. That's why we count on and trust Yellow to be one of the people who isn't afraid to treat us like equals entirely. And she doesn't disappoint."

Amber looked over at the girl, who was bundling her ponytail into a hat. The human girl might have looked like a boy if her chest hadn't developed in recent years. "Yeah." Amber conceded. "She definitely doesn't."

Looking at Ratty, Amber frowned. "You have no idea how lucky you lot are."

Ratty blinked. "What? You have Riley and all of your friends." he pointed out.

"I do. **Now**." Amber said. "As far as I can tell, you were just another wild pokemon that wound up being captured and taken on a magical adventure or two of some description. Me? I was stripped from my home, tortured and experimented on, and prepped to be a tool of destruction for team rocket. Gauge? Also experimented on, memories removed. Scarlet? Disliked by her whole community because she didn't want to hide some experience she had and nobody believed her until she was treated as an outcast of sorts. And **then** she got zapped and her own electricity can hurt her because it's proper plasma."

Ratty was shrinking back a bit. He thought Amber seemed frustrated, as if a bunch of resentment had been building up for a while.

"Kurenai? Had her brother ripped from her when she was young and raised to be a powerful pokemon for the use of an abusive trainer. Then, after she's saved from that, she discovers that her brother's been trapped in a fucking **dark ball** for six years or so. Speaking of him? The guy's always afraid someone's going to see the marks in his eyes and judge him. The fear never goes away. We're always on the run, a bunch of people who pissed off a big scary team of bad guys, except unlike those legendary stories of Red, or other trainers and humans who soak up glory, these bad guys have some level of competence and can wipe us off the map!" Amber ranted. "You guys, you all had it **easy**!"

Ratty stopped retreating. Amber's righteous anger over the torment everyone she knew had gone through had just gone from reasonable to insulting. He stepped forward. "Easy?" He asked harshly, And Amber stopped talking with her mouth still open. "Look, I get it. Your life sucks. But guess what? So did ours. I've been through more than two dozen fights to the death at least because we keep getting involved in stuff no rational person would. But we're the 'good guys'. That means we take the bullets for other people. Hell, some of us have even literally **taken** bullets and survived. Having a rough life of repetitive battling in a gym and throwing ourselves into danger is more than enough, and we've sorted it. Don't use the word 'easy' around me, Amber."

Amber stepped back, her ears flattened on her head. "I…" she stopped herself cold. She turned and began to walk away, her tail drooping and her ears still flattened on her head.

"Amber," Ratty called, giving her pause. "Look. If you keep making assumptions, well, there are some people who get pissed off at the wrong word spoken. **I** used to be one of those people with a temper. I get what you're saying, really, I do. But that's all of us. Every person here, from the humans, the godchildren, and us, the pokemon, has it rough nowadays, and that's not going to change unless we **win**."

Amber turned her head to look back. "We'll lose," she said, tired. "We're not invincible. And there's no way we're all getting out of this alive."

Ratty smiled. "Wanna bet?" he asked, walking up and rubbing Amber's head. "I can feel it. We're all going to be fine. We just need to do our job, as always. Who knows, maybe we'll even get to retire, hahaha!"

The laugh was what did it. Amber couldn't help but smile. "Okay, fine." she murmured, turning away from the raticate. "Dammit, I was trying to be pessimistic and shit but noooo."

Ratty rolled his eyes and turned to find his comrades. Dody was by yellow, Gravvy stayed by Mesa, Omny… Was just kind of standing and watching from a distance, Kitty was fluttering about the humans, and Chuchu had managed to place herself on Yellow's shoulders without his noticing. That pikachu was capable of moving around so silently… Or perhaps he was going deaf.

" _At least I could use my whiskers to detect sound waves… Kind of. Here's hoping I don't go deaf_ _ **and**_ _blind. I'd have to learn how to do… Whatever that one movie hero character does. What was his name?"_

"Daredevil, Ratty," Yellow called over her shoulder.

" _Right. Thank you, Yellow."_

"No problem."

Riley blinked as Yellow turned back to him. "You were saying?" she asked pleasantly.

Back with Amber, she approached Omny. "Yo." she greeted him. The ancient pokemon looked down at Amber curiously, but he didn't respond. "What's your deal? You talked more when we were traveling all together before."

"Eh, we battle every day," he muttered. "You tend to do more acting than talking, especially when you're pulling your punches. Full-time job, etcetera. It's nuts, and I'd much rather still be asleep than talking to other people."

"So sleep," Amber muttered, her deadpan expression not really fitting the face of an adorable little eevee. Omny chuckled despite himself.

"Can't. It's too bright, and our pokeballs are translucent, so they won't help. I'll just ask Yellow for a few extra hours of sleep during our quote-unquote vacation." he explained.

"Oh, okay." Amber nodded and looked to the group. They were all having their fun, conversing and even laughing about some things. With the exception of Mesa, all of them seemed tired. Tired enough to drown the threat of imminent death in humor for their own sakes. But at least they were having some fun. Mesa was even warming up to both of the other humans, despite not pulling her punches when Riley said something impulsive.

Except for Gauge. Amber frowned. Why was that guy being such a loner? Yeah, he wasn't the social type, but Mesa didn't seem too social. Well, she seemed selectively social. Gauge knew full well he'd be welcomed with open arms, so what was he doing?

Kurenai kept glancing at him, but Amber wasn't as sappy as she was. Nope. Kurenai would look at him and consider whether or not he was willing to be approached. Uncomfortable pairing; it was genuinely adorable. Still, Amber wasn't an awkward pairing subject.

So she bounded up to the faker and pulled his eyelid up with her paw. "Mornin' sleepyhead." she teased. Gauge fought the offending paw by trying to close his eye again, but no matter how much extra muscle they gave him, an eyelid muscle was no match for an arm muscle. Amber's cheeky smile was enough to make him angry, and he gave her a quick jolt of static, enough to make her pull her paw away. "No, Bad gryphon!" she called as she jumped on his head.

Realizing he couldn't shock her without risking her health while she was on top of him like that, Gauge was forced to resort to other matters. "A gryphon has a bird's head, brat," he grumbled, bringing a paw up and brushing the eevee off of him. Or… Trying to.

Amber backflipped over the paw. "Nice try, birdbrain. Now, you gonna tell me why you're in such a funk?" she asked, using the new info on gryphons to her advantage. Of course, she'd seen the lava creatures. Kind of hard to miss when they were trying to kill her. That said, teasing Gauge was fun and he really called for it with his clarification nonsense.

Gauge swatted at her a few more times before giving up. "Whatever," he grumbled. "I don't want to talk to you."

"No, I bet you want to talk to Kurenai," Amber replied cheerily.

Gauge brought his head up, "This has **nothing** to do with Kurenai."

"Suuuuure."

"I will electrocute you, fox." he threatened.

"Try it. See what Riley does." she snarked right back. "Probably he'd be lenient on you, but I haven't seen him do a proper rant yet. But he's bound to have picked up some stuff from the best of the best; Yellow, his mom, everybody else who's wanted to strangle him for nearly dying on their watch."

"Kurenai is not relevant to this." he asserted. "I just wanna be alone."

"I think you don't like it when Kurenai talks to other guys." Amber mused.

His swipe was too fast. Amber tumbled to the ground, and Gauge set his fur and feathers sparking violently. "Wanna try climbing on me again?" he asked dangerously.

"Naw." Self-preservation kicked in for the tiny fox, who bounded away. Gauge snorted as she stepped up and whispered something in Kurenai's ear.

"Oh, just great," he muttered as she approached. "Look, I'm not in the mood."

"Lies." Kurenai teased. "You're always in that mood. You know, **your** mood. The 'Gauge' mood that doesn't go away for some reason. C'mon, I want to see 'happy' Gauge, not 'neutral' or 'angry' or 'loner' or 'all of the three prior' Gauge."

"Did that have to be so complicated?" Gauge complained. "And I don't do happy. I do anything but happy. Or sad. I don't do sad either."

Kurenai rolled her eyes and then closed them. "You have to be… The **silliest** guy I know."

Gauge raised his head. "... **What**?"

"Silly, that's what I called you." she poked him lightly on the cheek. "Hiding away like nobody cares about you. I'd almost think you've been journeying with us for far with your eyes closed. You know what?" she asked, leaning close to him so that his eyes met hers and her scent filled his nostrils. "I think it's time for you to open them."

Gauge couldn't escape her crimson gaze. "Why are you comparing my eyes with my emotional state?" he finally asked. "Stop."

The simple command had her rolling her eyes. "Nice try." she snorted. "Now get up and talk to people."

Gauge smacked his paw over his eyes and lurched to his feet. " **Fine** ," he growled, stalking over to the group. He silently walked up to them. "Hey, Kurenai wants me to say stuff." He stated bluntly.

Kurenai blushed. "Gauge!"

"'Cept I don't know what to say cuz I have nothing to say." Gauge shrugged.

"Gauge!"

"Soooo I'm just gonna sit here and listen in or something, or pretend to, so your crazy fox and sweet absol will get off my back. Okay?"

Bombshell. Gauge didn't even notice what he said. He just sat there while everybody stared at him, his ear twitching. Other than the rogue ear, Gauge didn't move a muscle. Just sitting there, oblivious. Yellow tuned into his thoughts, not having properly done so for any of Riley's newer companions yet. Her brow shot up as his memories hit a dead end before being experimented on, but more importantly, his blunt, oblivious honesty. He wasn't even talking about emotional attachment. Literally just calling her by how she acted, but nobody else was taking it that way.

And Kurenai had a habit of freezing up when he said something like that, if she was seeing the memory of a certain innuendo flashing through Kurenai's mind properly.

While Kurenai spluttered about that whole speech, Mesa, undeterred, continued talking to Yellow and distracting her. Amber set about to ruthlessly teasing a flustered Kurenai and a yet oblivious Gauge, Riley went on talking to Kazekai about… Something, and Yellow's pokemon started joining conversations at random.

Yellow looked at Mesa, an idea popping into her head. "Mesa, if you are part groudon… Is it possible that I can read you when you're like that?"

Mesa blinked. "When I change?" she clarified. As Yellow nodded, Mesa looked about. "Later. When nobody's around," she promised. "We'll test that."

Riley raised his hand while still talking to Kazekai.

"Not until you can safely shift!" Mesa practically shouted at him. His hand fell in rejection.

"Nice try, dude." Kazekai offered.

"I'm always getting knocked out," Riley whined, shaking his head.

"That's because you throw yourself into the line of fire." Kazekai pointed out bluntly, shifting slightly where he stood. He was having a decent conversation with Riley, but he wanted to check on Kurenai, and more importantly, Gauge. He did not like the way the introverted and rough guy seemed to be getting closer to his sister. Gauge could be trusted, he knew, but he also knew that Gauge put a lot of force behind whatever he did, with the exception of walking, which he seemed to do silently just fine. If the two fell for each other, Kazekai didn't want Kurenai getting physically hurt by the much larger and stronger beast of a luxray. Granted, Gauge was reasonable as well.

Which meant to Kazekai that the simple fact that this was his sister was fighting his logic. He shook his head and turned back to Riley as the boy began his response: "Yeah… I know. Frankly, some of the stuff that's been thrown at us could have killed us. I don't want any of you to die. You know I'm happy taking a bullet for you guys."

Kazekai frowned. "You've got- wait." he looked around and points a claw at everyone for his own sake as he mentally counted. Mesa, Yellow, Ratty, Omny, Kitty, Chuchu, Gravvy, Dody, Kurenai, Gauge, Amber, Scarlet, and… He paused for dramatic effect before patting his chest with his paw. "Thirteen people who would rather you try to stay alive. And that's just the people here."

"I get it, I'm not good enough at my job to protect myself along with everyone else." Riley huffed and turned away. Kazekai blinked, realizing that he might have said something wrong. It was what everyone else was drilling into the boy's head, but…

With a jolt, the male absol realized that Riley was upset because he really was trying, and he had limits. Putting everyone else before himself was his compromise because he wasn't perfect. The problem was that he often **seemed** that way. When he fought team rocket grunts or weaker pokemon in hordes, he was utterly unstoppable. Achieving flawless victories constantly. Against the superpowered opponents as of late, he wasn't so invincible, but he must have been thinking that people assumed he could still be.

It wasn't fair.

"Riley." Kazekai caught up with him and stepped alongside him. "I think I get it now. Everyone's expecting you to be perfect."

Riley put his hand up to cover his mouth, his eyes dull and tired. He nodded slowly, and Kazekai strove forward. "I know I'm not the best at motivational speeches, but… All of us, even you, have needed you to be perfect over and over again. After some rest, I think you'll be better. Take a few days. Just relax and hang out with everyone, okay? Sit out whatever ridiculous shenanigans come your way. I'll help everyone kind of understand what's wrong, because I know you don't like talking about it. Is that okay?"

Riley gave a long pause. "...Yeah. It's fine." he muttered.

Yellow clapped her hands. "Okay, we're all disorganized right now, and I have an excellent idea! Let's go get some ice cream and start the actual relaxing, shall we?"

* * *

" _This… Did not go as planned."_

The cloaked sylveon thought calmly to herself as a familiar man paced before her. Being tied roughly to a chair wasn't fun for a quadruped, not to mention uncomfortable. Her head was lowered, her face enshrouded by her cloak.

" _How did this happen? I looked into the room, saw that Blaise wasn't in there, and then I got K-O'd by something to the back of the head. My card shields didn't even block it, which is weird."_

Speaking of her cards…

Tricky looked around, seeing every deck of cards she had were heavily locked up and contained in a box of what had to be reinforced glass with literal iron chains surrounding it. Fun. She had been knocked out, but she knew she healed quickly due to her connection to the guardian of magic. The magic in the air should have healed her sooner, but her headache was blossoming. Where was all of the magic?

"I know you can understand me." Blaise finally decided to say. Tricky's attention snapped to him to find him looking directly at her. "And judging by the monstrous amount of magical equipment you had on you, I am going to go ahead and assume you know how to speak my language too."

Tricky nodded. "Not sure why you tied me up. I didn't want to fight you," she said.

Blaise turned to her. "I couldn't be certain. And frankly, I am not taking chances." he gestured around the room with his hand. "This is one of 'my' rooms. And I have managed to eradicate the magic signature that plagues the air within it."

Tricky did not miss the fact that the man's verbal speech was dissimilar to the way he wrote in every conceivable way. "You don't like magic?" She asked, blinking. "Why?"

"Because it's everywhere, can be used anytime, cannot be properly predicted, and is downright illogical." the man explained easily, continuing to pace. "But now it's time for me to ask questions. Who sent you?"

"The Guardian of Magic." Tricky answered easily. That answer wouldn't hurt anybody. It wasn't like anybody could hurt Angelica anyways.

"And who is that?" the man predictably asked. People either frowned in frustration and impatience, or cowered when they heard the title. It all depended on the knowledge people have of the guardians themselves. Unimportant if they are not known, terrifying if they are known through legend or rumor, and then, finally, justly diversified if the person hearing it knows the guardian identified personally.

"Her name is Angelica. She is the sentient core of all magic." Tricky replied helpfully. "And… You summed her up pretty well. Everywhere, can pop up anytime, utterly unpredictable, and tends to do whatever she wants for no apparent reason. You missed a few, though. 'Prankster', for one. 'All powerful' works nicely. 'Friendly', I guess, but that depends on whether you can take her pranks in good humor. Kind of hard to, I'll be honest. Her favorite pranks revolve around transformation spells."

Blaise listened intently, not showing a single reaction on his face. Instead, his body position betrayed his weariness. "And what… Does this monster want with me?"

"She didn't tell me." Tricky admitted a bit sheepishly. "Frankly, I'm happy for you. If Angelica came personally, you would have gotten a much more difficult to understand speech and maybe gotten turned into a pokemon temporarily in the process. I like to think I am a more… Reasonable… Alternative to find out more about what's going on here."

His posture still sagged and weary, Blaise leaned on a counter, facing away from the cloaked sylveon. "Much appreciated, I suppose…" He murmured conversationally, sarcastically. "...What group are you a part of now?"

Tricky blinked. "Pardon?"

"The orange haired boy and his band of tormented souls?" the nurse/captor asked. "The viridian forest child and her team? The girl, Mesa? The group Pariah failed to strike down, including Xerneas? The trio of reformed team rocket members? The pokemon league, and or the gyms? Literally, any other group that we have to account for in Johto or Kanto?" he rubbed his eyes. "I doubt you minded your own business wherever you were with your grand mistress of confusion."

"I only had short-term meetings with several of the groups." Tricky replied easily. "And not recently save one group. Although… I wouldn't discuss their locations with you."

"Not exactly an acceptable answer." Blaise approached her, despite obviously not wanting to. "I may be a nurse, but that only improves the 'persuasion' abilities I might have. When I first struck you, gold energy appeared around your wound and began to repair you. Now I am aware that it is raw magic that mends you. What would happen if I picked you apart in here?"

"I would probably fall unconscious in a way, if you did to me what would kill someone else. Wouldn't be able to heal until magic became available to me again in some way, but I can't die, not connected to Angelica the way I am. And because it is irrelevant how much damage I take, pain is easily ignored."

Blaise grunted. "It's for the best, that it would be useless," he muttered, turning away. "I didn't want to torture you anyway. It's just another obligation."

"Spend more time with what you're already trying to do," Tricky advised simply.

"Ember…" he whispered, almost too quietly for Tricky to hear.

"Nobody can fault you for caring about your sister." Tricky whispered, intentionally keeping her voice loud enough for the man to hear her. He did, and he faced her quickly.

"What do you know of her?" he demanded, tense.

"Only that you really care for her, honestly." Tricky admitted. "I know she fought Riley once, but that was only a story told by the winner, the boy, Riley. It helps understand what happened, but not why it happened. I know I have no right to ask this, but I want to ask what you've been through."

His glasses flashed. "You're right. You have no right to ask that." he agreed bluntly, and promptly stopped talking about it. "Here is my dilemma. I don't want to kill you. Apparently I can't, but if magic is what heals you, I can do the next best thing; take you out and leave you to wait however many thousands of years it takes for this room to crumble on its own, evacuate everyone to a spare facility, and lock your mutilated body in a dark tomb for as long as it holds up."

Tricky blinked. The man was observing tools like the scalpel and a few other things. "What are you going to do here for Ember?" she asked.

"The more I tell you, the less likely I will allow you to leave," Blaise commented.

"I don't care." Tricky asserted. "This would not be the first time I have been torn apart when my guard was down. Even if I have to wait, I want to talk to you."

"Why?" he asked tiredly.

"Because you have something to say." Tricky replied quietly.

Blaise paused, his posture straightening almost imperceptibly. "Very well. Storytime, followed by thousands of years of nothingness for you." he relented. Tricky tilted her head, considering. The man was saying that for the record, clearly. Camera surveillance was both often used for security. Securing foes and allies alike. Blaise wanted his sister to be all right, and if the plan got out, then there was a chance that the mysterious cloaked sylveon he had found were to get out these secrets, this 'plan' would crumble, and his sister would be safe. He just had to act.

Tricky smiled as Blaise began.

"I cannot say the name of the man who has twisted my sister to his will. Even in this circumstance, it would not be taken as incoherent ramblings to a doomed creature. But I can say **what** he is. He was a pale, stick of a kid who enjoyed psychologically tormenting the other children who were, in his eyes, beneath him. Now he is a pale, grown man whose mental state has deteriorated over time, at a disturbingly rapid pace. And he sees the world as a disposable playground.

"Global destruction?" Tricky asked.

"He wants to be seen. And he will be. The way his plan goes about, every last person in the world will see the face of the man who will activate a quite literal global annihilation device. The face on everyone's minds as they burn."

Tricky swallowed. There were a lot of people in the multiverse who would destroy planets for various reasons, or no reason at all. Wanting to be world famous without the press downside? That had to be the simplest yet most ridiculous one. "Do you know if there's another reason he wants to do that?" she asked quietly.

"I think there used to be. His end goal elevated in levels of destruction as what did exist of his logical side seemed to fade away. I cannot identify his motives. In fact, I believe he no longer has any motives with the single exception of the world knowing he was the one who tore it apart." Blaise explained tiredly. "He plots to tear the world apart in three ways."

Tricky's eyes widened. " _Is this man trying to set a record?"_ she thought in full seriousness. If the motive was just to accomplish the impossible, and going after the entire planet… Destroying the world in three ways at once!?

"His first involves the reason the boy's pokedex was stolen. He will turn the world on its head by turning a large percentage of its pokemon on everything they see within an instant." Blaise continued tonelessly. "His second involves my sister. The crown she plans to design would allow her to create anything using fire. She is committed to this man through his manipulations since she was a child, and even though the crown will overheat and kill her, she could unleash hellish creatures upon the entire earth. Armageddon."

Tricky's teeth were gritting now. She had expected something along the lines of domination. A lot of 'antagonists' wanted power, control. This one… It was almost as if he couldn't decide what he wanted, so he was literally taking everything down.

"And the third involves a device. A powerful creation that turns matter into raw energy. The boss will first turn every pokemon documented into the gathered pokedex into a mindless rage creature. This will obviously affect certain regions less than others, but it will still create chaos. Then, my sister's destruction will spread worldwide, persisting even after she burns from the overheating creation crown. Everything will begin to burn as fire-created monsters and pokemon alike rage against everything they see. Finally, once the carnage has gone on long enough, the boss will activate the final ending. A device built to spread energy. The energy created turns matter into cores that release more energy, like an infectious energy. The planet will be consumed by the energy, becoming just another star in the night, shining with the power of a foreign energy, never to die on its own."

"Something permanent." Tricky murmured. "Or to last a billion years at the least."

Blaise absently twirled the scalpel expertly between the fingers of his left hand. "Permanent." he proclaimed. "Whatever it touches will be converted into that same energy, like a vicious bacteria. Think on this. What the man wishes to create… He achieved instantaneous communication, only to use it to do better than the rockets with their pokemon controlling signal that never got off the ground. He helped defeat the law of conservation of mass without the aid of magic, and uses it and my sister to burn the world. He achieved a form of energy that could disperse **black holes** , and he chose to destroy the earth instead."

"So much for the world being a star in the night." Tricky muttered darkly.

"It would disperse, yes. All that would remain would be… Glitter, I suppose." Blaise nodded slowly.

Tricky closed her eyes. "Is there any way to stop any of this?" she asked.

Blaise set his scalpel down. "The pokemon mind control? Destroy the machine causing it. The energy conversion? Destroy the machine before it can cause it. Ember's destruction… I don't know. I've been talking and talking to her, and she practically tunes me out." he sat down on the counter across from Tricky heavily. "Years and years of logic and reasoning, and the boss' manipulations are what she followed. I just don't understand why. My sister is an inventive genius, a prodigy. She should have been able to see my reasoning, but instead…"

"She chose power." Tricky nodded, her cloak hiding her eyes as she dipped her head. "Power can do anything. Logic and reason becomes meaningless."

There were no more words to be said on that topic. Blaise had more to say about what he does for Ember, but they weren't for Tricky's ears. Instead, Tricky had one more topic. "Where are these machines?"

"I only know that the last end is in Sinnoh. Other than that, I was not told."

"Ember told you this information?"

"Yes." Blaise murmured. "Now." he took his phone out and tapped at it for a while, likely using it to control something. "I am turning off video and audio surveillance for this room for the sake of the squeamish little brats in charge of security."

Once he nodded after working with the miniature computer, Tricky thanked him. When he took her bindings off, he had a question of his own. "This powerful being, Angelica, you called her?" he asked. Almost before Tricky nodded, he continued: "I have failed as a brother and a caregiver. Please find a way to save my sister, villainous as she is."

Tricky smiled. "That's what we do best."

* * *

A rock was blown apart by a distinctly pink beam.

"Alright, that's it." Matt rubbed his arm. "Iiiit's numb again."

"That is seven, Matt." Xerneas reminded him. "An improvement, but you aren't ready for a real battle if necessary. And Marigold!" she looked over to Matt's mother, who was attempting to improve her skills as well. "Psychic power revolves around properly visualizing what you want to happen."

Marigold lost concentration and her tower of rocks she was attempting to control fell apart and pooled on the ground "I was attempting to." she said, looking at the pile.

"You must memorize every contour of what you try to pick up. You imagined a boulder being lifted." Xerneas explained patiently. "But you did not imagine **that** boulder being lifted. You can lift something like that with your eyes closed, but properly visualizing the item results in a much easier use of the mind."

Marigold simply nodded and bent down to pick up a rock, turning it over in her hand. As Xerneas instructed, she began memorizing every contour of the rock. Then, with her psychic powers, she lifted it. With her eyes open, visualizing the rock was quite easy… And literal. She closed her eyes then, and felt it get 'heavier'. That is to say, it put more strain on her mind to keep it going. She tried as hard as she could to make a perfect mental picture of the stone, but it was not perfect enough. It did not feel like mentally lifting an object while she could see it.

She opened her eyes again and let the stone gently sink into her palm. She needed a lot more practice.

Over where the trees were thicker, Matt was whirling his numb arm around in the hopes of getting some feeling back into it.

Because it was less of a technique than it was a feeling, correctly firing that moonblast was proving to be more than a chore. Hours were put into it, and he'd gone from one successful blast to about seven. Xerneas, however, had been quick to point out that that was seven shots when he was at total peace, when not in the thick of battle.

Matt did not intend on giving up. They weren't going to get so incredibly lucky the next time a villain crossed their border. Riley and the gang popping up had been an incredibly convenient fluke, and they were long gone. Next time, Matt knew he and his mother had to help with the fighting.

At the same time, Xerneas was concerned about this resolve. She was a legendary. Technically, by human standards in this universe, basically a god. Limited but at a higher level than most others. Immortal unless killed in battle, a feat that was extraordinarily difficult in its own right due to her powerful healing factor.

The two before her were decidedly less immortal. And while Matt shared her healing factor, his raw power was decidedly less than hers. He might match up to her with training, but that wasn't his job. Xerneas told herself over and over that it was her duty to protect the people placed in her care, but those people were insisting on helping protect her instead…

The conflict Xerneas kept feeling made the legendary glad that Matt's mother had not learned how to read minds as of yet.

Marigold closed her eyes again and attempted to appropriately visualize the rocks around the tower, but it put much more strain on her mind to lift something without being able to see it. She found it more difficult than expected to 'see' the rock in her imagination. " _I must attain full control of my power."_ She thought, determined.

Xerneas realized as she watched that she was growing very stressed out as she continued to mull over the dangers that grew in this region, with unknown motives and unknown goals. And then there was team rocket, whose goals boiled down to finding their old leader… And making a profit. They were dangerous as well. Her stress was getting to her, and so, she decided to meditate. Kneeling into a lying position, Xerneas closed her eyes and attempted to clear her mind while Matt and Marigold continued to attempt to improve their skills.

* * *

In the thick of a deep forest in an undefined location, a low building hid. It looked to be relatively new but had clearly fallen victim to the forces of nature for the duration. It's walls held cracks from various encounters with wild pokemon that did not appreciate the invasion of their territory but were eventually chased off, and the roof was not built for a long-term settlement; the effects of the rain and the sun had left it damaged.

Nevertheless, its function was served, as was evidenced by the single door, adorned with a red 'R' slid open at the bidding of the black-suited woman before it. The unidentifiable person stepped into it, revealing a simple, empty room with a staircase leading downwards into an underground facility.

The team rocket grunt, one of many, disappeared down the staircase and promptly greeted the man guarding the entrance from within. "Out of the sun?" she asked blandly, her casual tone implying a lack of fear.

"Yeah. But I figure a guy in a team rocket suit standing outside the door would be suspicious." the man replied, tipping his cap politely at the woman as she passed him.

"Less suspicious than the big red 'R' some moron painted on the front of the door?"

"...Fair point, miss, but then again, that's Team Rocket Standard."

She rolled her eyes as she opened the door to the rest of the compound. "I reckon we need a new standard," she commented as she went to pass through.

"Take it up with executive Petrel then." he replied nonchalantly.

"Pfft… That slick-haired bastard? I'd have better luck talking to a dumb pokemon about my problems." she retorted. "Remind me where the hell the rest of the executives are?"

"Out."

"I hate you." she opened the door fully and closed it behind her.

"What? I don't know more than that…" the male rocket grunt sweatdropped.

Inside, the building was rather condensed. The halls were as thin as reasonable, able to fit two people going in different directions, just about. The relatively low budget underground compound was teeming with members of team rocket. So many that it was clear a large operation was in the works, but at the moment most of them were bored out of their minds.

"I come bearing news!" the female grunt who had entered tipped her cap back, revealing her eyes. Once everyone who was being bored got up excitedly, she grinned. "Absolutely nothing has changed."

"Aw, c'mon!"

"Why do ya gotta be so brutal, Nagini!?"

"You bitch! Got us excited for nothin'!"

"You're a terrible person…"

"I'd sic my brand new arbok on you if I had enough space!"

The woman laughed and passed them all on her way somewhere in the space. The rest of the grunts quickly went back to being bored and talking miscellaneously. "I swear, she's going to be an executive with a personality like that." one of them said.

"No kidding. Her and that damn ditto of hers." another grunted.

"You keep forgetting the shedinja she has on reserve." a third reminded the second.

"Guh, don't remind me. She keeps sweeping the other guys in spars because of that thing."

"Ever think we should go with more than just poison and normal types?"

"Probably, but we do have to use pokemon they give us."

"Yeah, that's a thing. Why the heck won't they give us pokemon with varied types to help fend off more trainers? Psychics stomp our forces weekly."

"Which is why it's great that ninety percent of them stay in Saffron where they belong."

"This is true."

In a different room with a set of chairs facing a long table, a man in the shadows waited. His posture was bad, his hairstyle was worse, and the female grunt from before who had just entered hoped that he didn't turn around this time. "Sir." the word tasted like ill-cooked poison in her mouth. "Nothing new to report… Again. Whatever the other executives are doing, they're apparently expecting us to just wing it when they do."

"No, that's not it," Petrel responded, rounding on her, much to her displeasure. His eyebrow was raised dramatically, and his face was particularly unappealing, especially with the sorry excuse for a hairstyle that accompanied it. It was a very punchable face. With the 'punch me please' expression and the thinly cut hair and sideburns and beard, plus the weird discount mohawk that adorned the center of his head. He apparently thought that white belt and gloves and boots were somehow cool while on the black rocket uniform.

"Actually," Petrel continued in an annoying drawl, "The plan will be relatively obvious once it happens. With the unstable way everything's been going on lately, we can't trust even the people that work for us because there is another team with unknown motives on the loose. But it's simple anyways. When the chaos starts, everybody will know what to do."

" _Could you be any more of a vague bastard?"_ she thought. " _I cannot afford to anger the doofus. Once I get promoted, I can do whatever the hell I want with this discount team rocket executive."_

"Yes, Sir." she nodded.

"Feel free to join your fellow grunts outside." Petrel gestured towards the door. "Ah…"

"Nagini." the woman lowered her cap to hide her eyes from view. "My name is Nagini."

She realized she might have closed the door a little harder than she intended.

* * *

Growlithe trotted through the hall of the mansion, feeling like everything had settled to a degree of normalcy by now. His owner, Cassidy, would be in her study again, his father lying where he could see her and as much of the rest of the house as possible at the same time. That meant he would be directly in the doorframe of the study so he could keep an eye on the hall and the study alike.

Given that the family home was a mansion, and also home to exactly three people, himself, his father, and Cassidy, it was a longer trip. He often patrolled the house in order to make sure no parts of the house were in bad shape, because a lot of the building would go completely unused otherwise. Growlithe and his father stayed in one room, Cassidy stayed in another.

"Hey, dad." he barked as he padded up to the adult arcanine lying on the floor and pretending to sleep. He didn't react. Growlithe rolled his eyes, knowing this game. He pulled his father's eyelid open, raising a brow. Arcanine tried not to react, but Growlithe made a funny face and the game was over. Arcanine was laughing.

Growlithe re-attained his 'normal' expression and smiled. "Good afternoon, dad." he greeted Arcanine.

"Morning, son," Arcanine grumbled. "The house secure?"

"As secure as it ever could be." Growlithe confirmed happily. "Have you done anything other than lie there like a sack of potatoes today?"

"Nnnope."

Growlithe realized his dad wasn't going to move, and so hopped over his father to find Cassidy reading a book in her chair. "Fiction? Cassidy." he deadpanned playfully. Despite the fact that Cassidy couldn't understand him, she **could** hear him, and she jumped, and turned around in her chair to see him.

"Ah… I wasn't reading fiction…" she lied sheepishly, tossing the book on her desk and picked up the book she should have been reading. "I was just…"

Growlithe chuckled. "It's fine, Cassidy." he smiled. "Even the daughters of world-renowned investigators-slash-detectives need some time to relax."

Cassidy had quickly understood when Growlithe's tone was reassuring, or otherwise. He acted very human, and the audio cues were pretty clear. Cassidy only wished she was capable of understanding how pokemon spoke. Then perfect communication with her father's pokemon could be available.

Regardless, the series of barks had a clear joking adorable puppy's very presence made Cassidy smile. "Okay, Growlithe. Did you want something?"

Growlithe pointed to the phone stationed on her desk with a simple bark, and that was all Cassidy needed. "Riley?" she asked, just for clarification. He nodded, and she dialed the number into the phone to call Riley.

It rang about five times before it picked up. "He- No, Amber, it's Cassidy, not mom. Hey."

Cassidy laughed, and Riley made a noise over the phone. "Well, it's Cassidy's number," he muttered. "But she's laughing. Can't be her."

The deadpan joke made the detective roll her eyes. "Hello, Mr. Oras," she said professionally. "Someone wants to talk to you."

"Fantastic. I needed to get away from this conversation about the department store. Ow, Mesa! You've drilled it into my head already, I do **not** need another reminder about which floor the technical machines can be found on, no thank you. I have more problems with the vending machines because who the hell puts a tourist attraction where nobody knows it is? Ugh…"

Cassidy enabled the video call, seeing the orange haired boy holding what looked to be a mix of white and milk chocolate fudge ice cream with a scary girl hovering behind him with crossed arms. Riley was looking back at her before turning to the screen, blinking. "Are you done?" Cassidy asked.

"Growlithe wanted to talk to me?" Riley assumed. Cassidy nodded and bent down to put the phone on the floor, prompting Growlithe to trot up to it. "Riley, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm alive," Riley said. He didn't say 'great', he didn't say 'good', 'happy', or 'well'. He said ' **alive** '. Growlithe flinched as his mind made that connection. "Yellow's here, and this is Mesa, a new friend of mine." he continued. "We're all alive and kicking, and according to Yellow, now relaxing." he held up the particularly large bowl of mouth-watering ice cream.

"I'm glad. You've been through so much." Growlithe commented.

"Yep." Riley nodded. "Although I don't think we're through quite yet, this is basically a vacation." he rubbed his eyes with the arm not holding his precious ice cream. "I'm starting to think some rest might be… Necessary."

"So am I. Look at the bags under your eyes." Growlithe murmured. "I don't think I got a proper look before. Stories only do so much to help understand what they did to you out there. Demons, dark balls, ghosts, random bad guys that've come out of nowhere…"

"Hey, it was only one demon." Riley shrugged.

Growlithe rolled his eyes. "You **do** need sleep."

Riley grew serious for a moment. "We were told Saffron was safe. Team rocket managed to get in relatively easily." he pointed out. "And someone needs to keep watch at night-"

 **Bang!**

Riley was knocked out of frame. Thankfully, his ice cream remained unspilled on the table. "Correction." Mesa came into frame on the phone screen. " **I** will be keeping watch at night. Don't waste yourself."

Growlithe decided he liked this girl, even if she was way too rough. The way Riley came back sheepishly grinning and rubbing the back of his head, it was almost as if he kind of enjoyed getting smacked around a bit. Growlithe's brow raised, his experience with an investigative lifestyle helping him clue into the expression on Riley's face as he looked at Mesa. "Dude… Didn't you just meet this girl?" he asked.

Riley frowned and snapped out of it, looking at the phone. "Huh?" he asked.

"We met south of Saffron. It has not been long, but our, ah, similarities have given us the incentive to understand each other." Mesa clarified. Upon seeing Growlithe sweatdrop, she decided to elaborate. "Our connection to the legendary pokemon."

Growlithe blinked.

"Apparently I've been an idiot for my entire life and didn't know I was tapping into Dialga's powers when I did awesome stuff." Riley closed his eyes and shook his head at himself.

"And I am the godchild of Groudon, in much a similar way as Riley is to Dialga." Mesa nodded. "I think it is important to understand each other."

" _Or develop a crush on one another. Wish you luck with that one, my friend"_ Growlithe thought to himself, glad that Yellow's mind reading powers did not transfer over phone calls. " _Come to think of it, does that officially end the whole 'Riley-slash-Yellow' ship Amber was pushing for a while?"_

" _And why on earth am I even thinking about it?"_

Riley smiled after that conversation died down. "It's really good to talk to you again." he proclaimed. "Things going well there?"

"As well as they can." Growlithe replied happily. "Everything is settling down, Cassidy is beginning to relax more, but if anyone mentions it, she freezes up again, so don't react to that bit, dad's managed not to give himself a heart attack with the various extra snacks he grabs at night…"

"Hey!" Arcanine's indignant bark resounded into the room, and Growlithe and everyone on the other end of the phone line laughed at once, leaving Cassidy in the dark. Yellow laughed as she was monitoring her pokemon's minds as they registered the words, getting an indirect understanding of the point.

"You know it's true dad." Growlithe called back to him before turning to the phone again. "Pewter's been so utterly peaceful nowadays. Team rocket and the team 'X' blokes that popped up recently only cause very minor, easily stopped trouble. Well, team rocket were easily ignored. The unnamed team we've been calling 'X' just to make it easier have totally ignored our city."

"I'm glad." Riley nodded twice. "Very glad."

"I just wish we knew more about them. We only know that they're not above recruiting demons, capable of brainwashing, and have resources from some place or another." Yellow said. "At least, I assume it was brainwashing that is making that Mute kid act the way he does."

"Unless it was closer to brain damage…" Kazekai muttered. He hadn't meant it to be so loud, but Growlithe's ears were good and Kazekai's voice wasn't too quiet anyways. He got lots of curious glances from the people around him, although he wasn't in the frame on the phone, so Growlithe could not do the same.

"What?" Was the general response.

"Well, I was thinking about it." Kazekai muttered "And when I was captured by the dark ball, two things happened. I was filled with uncontrollable rage and hatred, but at the same time, I was unable to disobey my so called 'master' or try to hurt him. The reason for my complete obedience? The dark ball damaged my brain. While the coding effect of the dark ball returned a lot of that to me, it left damage that won't ever go away. It's the obedience thing I'm thinking about. That Mute bloke is getting orders from someone, and he's following them unconditionally, he doesn't talk, doesn't act like he's properly alive… I'm just saying it's similar, but replace rage with… Silence."

"What kind of brain damage would result in just being able to take orders and know how to kill things? Oh, wait." Amber agreed. "You have a point, Kaz."

"But no pokeball works on humans." Yellow pointed out. "So whatever they did to Mute to make him a killing machine like that must have been done much more physically."

"Or he's just been trained like that," Mesa suggested blandly, crossing her arms.

"I'd believe that, but that guy thought I was telling the truth when I told him Yellow had gone somewhere when he had no reason to trust me. Not very bright if he was 'trained'." Riley argued. Mesa tilted her head to the side as she considered it, and nodded.

"Excuse me, aren't we supposed to be eating ice cream?" Kurenai asked, not intending to be rude, but had trouble thinking about what was rude or not when the ice cream bowls belonging to everyone who hadn't finished it yet was incredibly mouth watering to look at and the female absol was having trouble containing herself. " _Don't eat their ice cream don't eat their ice cream don't eat their ice cream…"_

"Yep." Riley walked over and picked his bowl up.

Growlithe smiled to himself. A large group like that were prone to random shenanigans, even if Yellow's team mostly didn't speak much. They seemed to go along for the ride without complaint or much comment, and Growlithe did wonder why, but it wasn't his place to pry. He looked up at Cassidy for a moment, then back at the phone. "Hey, ah, I'm glad you're all right, Riley," he said, still smiling. "Be good, don't do anything stupid, don't die."

Riley saluted, causing most of the people around him to burst into laughter. He even spotted Mesa almost laugh, but surreptitiously cover her mouth to cover the small chuckle that would have escaped. She was a tough girl, but she acted even tougher. As Riley disconnected the call, Growlithe wondered whether the others could tell.

* * *

Tricky exited the base under invisibility and a host of other anti-detection card tricks surrounding her. She got out her map and looked at it once again, feeling a heavy weight on her.

She had a **lot** to do.

* * *

"Damn." a deep voice muttered. "Here's hoping I can sneak some ice cream later when everyone's gone."

Zach took the binoculars from his eyes, hiding in a thick tree like he usually does. He was in a non-threatening posture; Having nothing else to do, he was considering his next match against Riley. The rivalry had become important to him. A small part of his mind kept bugging him that it would probably be a nice of him to let the rockets know at least that he wasn't still on the assassination job, but he was fine with watching them squirm.

As for the battle, Zach was well aware that the orange-haired boy deserved at least a week of rest. Warrior or not, he was human. Mostly, human. Partially, at least. So he'd hang out in the area, collect food in the berry trees in the woods, perhaps. And he had some money on him.

His stomach growled at the thought of the money in his pocket, and he rolled his eyes. He looked through the binoculars again, seeing that the teenagers and their numerous pokemon companions were chatting with somebody on the other end of the phone. Somehow, they weren't fighting for the space that the camera on the phone could see. " _Must have been the dog they left behind"_ Zach reckoned.

An impatient squawk interrupted him, and he turned away from the binoculars, irritated. A pidgeotto was glaring at him from a higher branch. He gestured rudely to the bird. "I'm **busy** ," he said. Again with the squawking. "Look, I don't speak pokemon. Try the entire group over yonder if you really want."

Even more angry squawking. "Bug off," Zach muttered. "I'll be out of here eventually. Seriously, just give me a few hours."

The pidgeotto didn't like that much. As Zach watched, it gestured angrily to a nest high in the branches, hidden. Zach 'aah'ed in response, but shrugged. "Look. I'm not going to touch it. I don't eat pokemon eggs. Just relax."

With an irate bird and a growling stomach, Zach sighed as he brought the binoculars to his eyes again. The group hadn't moved, but they had ended their call and were happily chatting with one another. And to think the blond one was slapping his rival about twenty minutes before.

Then Zach got pecked in the head. "Jeez, lady… Fine, five more minutes." he requested, intentionally in the way a child would ask for more time to continue playing a videogame or something. The bird continued insisting that he leave, beginning an all-out assault, forcing Zach to draw his weapon.

The resulting commotion attracted the attention of the various passerby under the tree to look up into it, and eventually, after having decided not to hurt the bird, Zach dropped out of it with his hood up and his saws sheathed, a few scratches on his face. "Note to self; Pay attention to bird nests" he reminded himself. "I keep having to relearn that…"

Keeping his head down and seeing that the surrounding people couldn't see his face at the moment because of the hood, Zach walked away without hesitation. And city life returned to normal.

He stopped and jumped into a tree when nobody was looking about twenty minutes later about another block away, and made sure the tree was a good enough one and contained no bird nests. Arranging himself, he looked through his binoculars again and frowned. The group had gone, perhaps to do something else.

He looked around, wondering if he could still spot them on this street, what he could see through the gaps in the leaves. He focused on the first set of bright orange hair he saw and suddenly lowered his binoculars. " _Oh..._ ** _shit_** _…"_

* * *

 **Exposition!**

 **...I literally have nothing else to say about this chapter. And I'm tired after completing chemistry homework. That's right folks, college has officially started for me.**

 **So... I hope you enjoyed. I'm going to sleep now. Or try to. I've been rubbish at that lately.**


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four: Vacation?

**November has come and gone... Without a submission. And a combination of the nano... Thing, not gonna bother to remember the name, and school made it impossible to progress on my stories. I think I'll work on Absol Lhant after this, one of those chapters...**

 **I'm going to make this as quick as I can manage, so let's do reviews. Jango's dragged Amber somewhere, so I have the house to myself... I think...**

 **AveragePichu... You might have misunderstood that bit, as I think I meant for Riley to be portrayed as tired enough that he didn't notice Chuchu finding her way to Yellow's shoulder. I'll try to keep up with the timeframe set, and I have a plan written down somewhere... I'll get to it.**

 **And guest... Wait, there's Mona, so... Awynessa? I'm assuming it's you. Anyways, I'm sorry Tricky seemed out of character since last time, and I'd love to say the situation she's in is extremely complicated (and it is), but I recognize the fallacy in such an argument. Tricky often portrays a serious side and a less guarded side, depending on the situation, but I'm a bit confused too. I'll do my best to write her in the future. You seem to be shipping Riley and Yellow extremely hard, and to each their own, but I don't really know when I'm going to get to the point where it's relevant to the plot, so it's important that I keep going the way I already was so that I don't have to change the plans I already have. Thanks for the correction on the word 'evident'.**

 **I'm glad you liked that ending, Anonymous... I hope this one works out well too.**

 **Hey, Zlaxe. So glad Jango isn't here... I really appreciate your thoughts on the various aspects of the chapters and how they might compare to one another, and although I'm a bit worried this isn't satisfactory what I have below, I hope it's good enough as a chapter. Spacing the thing out over a month turned out to be a mistake... Anyways, I'm real glad the characters themselves strengthen the story in the way they do, because they're the most valuable part of a story. It's okay if your review is disorganized... As long as it's okay that my response seems disorganized.**

 **A thank you to all who stuck with me during the last month... And a special thank you to every one of you that reviewed. I'm not going to put a bottom A/N on this one, so I'll shove the obligatory ending up here: Please give me your thoughts on the story in a review, feel free to follow the story if you enjoy it, etcetera, and more...**

 **Enjoy the chapter, everyone.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Four: Vacation?**

"Oh man, you shoulda' **seen** him!"

"Do we need to discuss this?"

"We're almost done with our ice cream, Riley. This is when real conversation happens."

"But I don't want to. Not about that."

"Suck it up and deal with it."

The large group of people and pokemon gathered together for ice cream was chatting up a storm, various conversations being had all over the place and intermingling with each other. But the most significant was obviously Amber mocking Riley… Again.

"Come on, come on, I really wanna hear this," Kazekai spoke up, pushing his way into the conversation by displacing Mesa and Yellow's elbows with his face to see into the circle of people talking.

"Okay, so we all walked into the candy and ice cream shop, right?" Amber started, ignoring Riley's muffled protests as Mesa stopped him from getting Amber into a crushing hug. "And Riley's in there first. Big guy behind the counter's got his eyes as wide as dinner plates because there's so many of us, but Riley's even better. He breaks into a freaking cold sweat when he sees like fifty options inside the glass counter thing because he thinks he has to choose just one and he's never dealt with ice cream before!"

Uproarious laughter filled the air as the group laughed at their expense. Riley managed to get Mesa away from him. "My turn," he said. "Mesa, Kazekai, everybody pretty much, you're gonna wanna listen in."

Everyone leaned forward as Amber tried immediately to escape, but Riley had her in his arms in an instant. "It all started when Yellow took us out for lunch before we left Pewter."

Yellow promptly burst out laughing and Amber squirmed harder. "Noooo I don't wanna discuss this!"

"Suck it up." Riley mocked her. "And deal with it. So I didn't want to go to the place that was going to make the pokemon either wait outside or in pokeballs. Wasn't gonna happen. So, we went to a less fancy place and ate there, and **Amber** sneaks a few breadsticks out of the little basket we had.

Mesa covered her mouth in an attempt to appear as cool and calm as she tried to be all the time, but was clearly having trouble by this point. She knew **all** about those things and what they did to pokemon.

"I was kind of interested before, but now you have my attention," Kazekai added.

"Noooo." the eevee whined as Riley grinned and opened his mouth.

"So Amber eats these things and Yellow and I are both like 'Okay, fine.' That goes on for a bit, and we leave the building with Amber acting way more hyper than usual."

"Than usual?" the eevee in question grumbled.

"So I don't know what was going on in Yellow's head at the time, but eventually we realize Amber's got this undying stupid happy look on her face as she bombs around. We get worried when she tries to run ahead and at this point, she's one **hundred** percent delirious…"

"What did you do?" Kurenai asked, curious.

"We chased her. I think for miles, I might have had to carry Yellow if we'd gone too much longer." Riley suddenly teased Yellow for her lack of stamina. "There was really a mess and a half. She'd toppled a huge tree, done some other things, and kept escaping us."

He leaned forward, causing everyone else to instinctively do the same. "And then she got into the pokeball factory."

"Oh no," Mesa muttered.

"Oh, yes, oh yes." Riley grinned while Amber whimpered and covered her ears with her paws. "It was chaos. I don't remember exactly what the people there said, but it was an absolute **mess**!"

"Pretty sure we just told them what she ate and they kind of accepted it while I sheepishly arranged some sort of compensation… If I'm remembering it right." Yellow muttered, honestly not sure how it went. Had she blocked the mess from her mind?

"Hahaha, that's amazing!" Kazekai laughed.

"Was it like a ball pit?" Kurenai asked.

"Just like a ball pit, although not exactly good for pokemon that can still be captured." Yellow agreed, smiling.

The laughter was quickly reduced to meager chuckles as everyone's enthusiasm gradually died down. It was hard to have long conversations about happy things when fighting for their lives was the norm recently.

"Mesa!" Riley suddenly exclaimed. "Tell us a funny personal story!"

"Oh yes, I'm sure you have many things to tell us, Mesa," Yellow commented. "After all, you and I are the only ones to really be just meeting.

Kazekai raised a paw, and Yellow heard his thoughts. "Yes, Kazekai, I'm sorry. I'm meeting you for the first time too. And Gauge, although I don't think he cares much."

Everyone looked at Gauge, who looked bored as hell.

"Anyways," Yellow gestured towards Mesa.

She looked between everyone, who matched her gaze with their hopeful ones. Sighing, she relented. "Let's see. Remember that rickety bar you met me in?"

While Riley nodded, Yellow's expression turned to one that was the definition of appalled. "You went into a **bar**?" she asked the orange-haired boy incredulously.

"What's wrong with that?" Riley asked, but Mesa cleared her throat.

"As I was saying." she started "The first time I went in that building, I was 'too young' to be in there. Granted, I still am, but I was particularly young. Ten or so. I walk in there, my staff in my hand, the same staff I'm holding right now, and I hear about twenty-five grown men shout at me to leave. But I had walked a long way, and I felt like getting some rest."

She gave a light smile. "I decided I was going to spend the night in the 'strange building', knowing what a bar was but having no real experience with them. Needless to say, the next few steps I took were punctuated by the biggest guy in the building stepping in front of me and told me to leave or be thrown out."

"What'd you do?" Riley asked, hoping he had guessed the answer correctly."

Mesa's smile turned into a smirk. "I beat him up."

Her fellow godchild cackled, envisioning the silly human getting his ass kicked by a ten-year-old godchild.

Yellow blinked. "The staff was the same staff? But it's sized for you at this age."

"That is true, but it has grown with me," Mesa explained simply. "Magic is obviously a thing in our world, and its limitations are based on how long it takes to cast the spell and whether the caster knows how to do it, meaning if someone were to make a staff that grows with me, they can."

"...Fair enough." Yellow relented, leaning back in her chair.

Riley eventually pulled himself together. "You have lots of stories about taking out humans, don't you," he said. It wasn't really a question.

"Yes, yes I do. Pokemon seem to know not to mess with me right away." Mesa agreed, her slight smile twitching upwards for just a moment. "Humans lack proper instincts, I think. They'll attack things even if something's screaming at them that they'll lose. Badly."

Riley sat back. "Doesn't happen for me…" he muttered. "Pokemon attack me too sometimes."

"You're not intimidating enough."

"Hey!"

"You know, I think at this point only Riley's nearly died." Amber piped up. "Get your shit together, Riley."

"Oi, I'm not the **only** one who's nearly died." Riley protested, snatching the eevee up in his arms before she could escape. "Just the only one who put up a fight and nearly died."

"Nononono-" Amber's protests were cut off by Riley hugging her tight, the eevee's eyes bugging out as Riley gave her her comeuppance. "Ack… Fine.

"Must the topic always go back to this?" Yellow complained, having suddenly felt drained and annoyed. "Every time, the topic goes back to your failed attempts at dying and leaving everyone else behind. Is it really so hard not to talk about?"

"...Yeah." Riley set Amber down, who jumped onto Mesa's shoulder and stayed there. "It is."

"It's been our goddamn lives for the past… How long has it been?" Amber asked.

"I don't even know." Riley finished off his ice cream. "Point is, it's the only real thing to actually **talk** about. Even if we come back to it over and over like hopeless philosophers."

"It is getting repetitive." Mesa agreed, looking around at the people walking by. "But we should save even more private topics like our lives and our nature outside of the public."

"Then it's probably a good thing everything's said and done with the ice cream." Yellow tapped the rim of her empty bowl with her spoon. "I can take you to where I will be spending the night. I'm pretty sure it's because we're overworked, I daresay, but they provide us with the best hotel rooms they can find, and in Celadon... "

"It means it's posh." Mesa nodded. "If we're going to get our extremely tense demigod here to relax, that's probably the way to do it."

"Ooh, that's a new one. How many titles do you crazy hybrid people have!?" Amber demanded. Mesa rolled her eyes and rubbed Amber's head with her hand, causing the eevee to embarrass herself by purring from the feeling that caused.

"Don't question it," she ordered as she stepped back from the table. "Shall we go?"

And so they went. After picking themselves up, and making sure all of the pokemon (a rather large crowd of pokemon at this point) were ready to go, the group turned and walked away from the place. Mutually deciding to hold further conversation, funny or at least semi-serious, until they got to the promised secluded place, they instead observed more of the beautiful scenery that made Celadon so famous.

"The gym is south that way." Yellow eventually gestured through the city. "It's actually hidden in a thick forest area that's impossible to get through, so part of the challenge is asking the locals to find out where the path to get to it is, to test a trainer's resourcefulness. If they find it without that, then it's a good example of their tenacity… Or dumb luck."

"Hm. I did not know that." Mesa mused as she looked in the direction Yellow was pointing. "I do know that the celadon gym deals in grass types, and that they populate their gym entirely with females."

"Seriously?" Gauge piped up from the back. "What is it with this group and having more girls than guys?"

"I know." Kazekai voiced his frustrations that had clearly been bubbling up for a while, walking next to Gauge, the two sharing a knowing nod. "Even if we'll never meet these people, it's 'she' this and 'she' that. Why do we keep coming across so many women?"

"I can't answer that question. Especially since I can't hide behind statistics because the Kanto population is about fifty-three percent male." Yellow told him.

"Fanservice?" Amber asked.

"We're not in a television show, Amber." Mesa tapped Amber on the nose with her finger without looking back at her.

"Hey, don't boop me!" Amber shouted, bringing her tail around and trying to tickle Mesa's nose. To her disappointment, it didn't cause Mesa to sneeze.

"More females than males is a coincidence. If they all had exaggerated features, **then** it'd be fanservice." Mesa clarified for the eevee in monotone, doing her best not to smile.

Riley muttered something out of range of everybody but Gauge and Kazekai, both of which reacted in the way guys normally would in the face of a joke meant only for them. This obviously brought Mesa's attention and interest, simply because wanting to know what you missed is a universal feeling.

Yellow herself tuned into Gauge and Kazekai's thoughts to find out for herself, and her expression went flat. This too Mesa noticed. "Want to explain something to me?" she asked, feeling a little tense.

"Here's a hint." Yellow patted her shoulder "It's about you."

Mesa blinked as Yellow increased her pace, before understanding what she'd meant. Next thing Riley knew, he was rubbing a bump on his head. "If you have something to say to me, try actually saying it," she ordered.

"...Yes ma'am…" he muttered while Amber laughed at his misfortune.

"It's not very nice to keep hitting him." Scarlet piped up quietly from Riley's shoulder, but Riley waved the words away.

"Nah, it's fine. Keeps my head in the game," he said convincingly, rubbing Scarlet's ears and smiling back at Mesa. "Besides, I definitely deserved that one."

"Yes, you did." Mesa huffed, picking up her own pace to keep up with Yellow.

Together, the group approached a large, extremely expensive looking hotel building on an elevated surface compared to the rest of Celadon. Yellow had **not** been kidding about how well they treated their gym leaders.

"I realize it's just gold colored paint, but honestly…" Mesa muttered. "That is a tad overboard."

"The official meeting the gym leaders hold hasn't been held in Celadon since Giovanni was the leader of the Viridian Gym," Yellow explained. "And it was around that time that the game corner fell under new leadership, which turned out to be team rocket, just as Giovanni was revealed to be the old leader of team rocket. Until this year, there's been a lot of paranoia about letting the leaders of the region collect into the place. But considering I've taken the post, they've decided to trust me."

Then she giggled a bit. "Blue is going to want to hear all about the experience."

"You've said that name before." Riley said as they walked up the incline to the entrance to the building, "Who was that again?"

"A friend," Yellow told him shortly. "He's complicated."

"How complicated?" Kazekai asked.

"Professor Oak's grandson," Yellow replied, much to the surprise of both Mesa and Riley, as well as Amber and Scarlet.

"Whaaat, the old man's got a grandson!?" Amber shrieked

"This 'Oak' person. You sent him my pokeball, right?" Gauge clarified.

"Yes, and yes," Yellow confirmed. "Blue is a very skilled pokemon trainer. Aside from Red, he is a superb pokemon trainer. Before he stepped down from the Viridian Gym and handed it over to me to travel another region, he challenged me to a battle and won."

Mesa blinked. "Even though you could heal them?" she asked.

"I need to be **somewhat** close to heal a pokemon," Yellow explained. "But yes. He's been gone for a long while now and I did get much more powerful in the meantime, but he likely has done the same."

Riley looked away. "I still don't see how it's possible to defend that, you humans label it a freaking **sport**."

"To the denser ones, yes, it is a sport. To someone like myself, where it's my job to protect the people and be a part of a huge number of people collectively leading each region and essentially the **world** , it's a responsibility to learn how to fight. And humans are weak, so we need pokemon to help us. I hate doing this for sport too. I **don't** do it for sport."

"Some pokemon would gladly fight for sport without human intervention," Mesa spoke up. "I can't find it in me to judge them; Fighting brings up the adrenaline like nothing else. Even among those who call it a sport, there is a decently sized percentage where the feeling seems to be pretty mutual, whether the pokemon were raised into it or not. Of all three of us, I daresay that I am the least biased. Pokemon society does not always involve humans, but human society has always involved pokemon."

"What are you saying, Mesa?" Riley questioned.

"I'm saying you're looking big picture. Quit it and focus on what you can deal with, which are the individual cases of mistreatment, one at a time. I think being the target of a lot of people and surviving is actually starting to give you a big head." Mesa told him in her usual blunt manner.

"Mesa-" Riley cut himself off. He took a deep breath, thinking Mesa's words over. Was managing to survive everything thrown at him making him arrogant? It's true that he wasn't afraid for himself at all. His confidence got in the way a few times, but mostly it was how protectiveness for the pokemon he protected that brought him into getting into danger. But here he was generalizing the human race after so many lessons that he was sure he'd already learned about how complicated and diverse it was. Mesa hadn't told him to stop being protective, because both of them knew it would never happen. She just told him to focus on the things he could actually fix, the specific things. " _Be extra vigilant but don't pick fights with strangers."_ He told himself. "...I'm gonna trust you to keep setting me straight from now on, okay?"

"You got it." she gave him a genuine smile, and his eyes stayed locked with hers more than he usually would have done. It was at this point he noticed that Mesa seemed to have a habit of keeping eye contact with people until they looked away first.

"You know, I always said you were going to get into a -mmph!" Amber started only for Mesa to cover her muzzle with her hand without looking again. She coughed a few times as the hand was removed. "Didn't see all that happening only for the **girl** to have the dominant personality!"

All eyes turned on Riley to find out how he would react to being called submissive. Instead of trying to get Amber in the traditional rib bending hug, as everyone expected, they were surprised by him shrugging. "She's the one that knows what she's doing." he pointed out. "And I always jump head first while she seems to **think** , so I kind of need her around.

"You got that right." Mesa agreed, turning to Yellow. "And why are you being quiet?"

Yellow blinked. "Wasn't my conversation," she said. Then she felt an eerie feeling as the dark skinned girl gave her an even look. "Don't look at me like that."

Mesa blinked.

"I can't take it." Yellow hissed, losing the staring contest as she looked away. "Fine. I was embarrassed about being caught for being somewhat biased."

"Mmhmm." Mesa agreed.

"...And embarrassed about being biased. Because I've preached about how complicated it is before." Yellow continued, wincing.

"We all sometimes let emotions control our words, and the rest of the world cringes as they watch." Mesa put her hands on both Yellow and Riley's free shoulders, and then let go. "Riley is on vacation, so I won't have any more talk about this right now."

"Yes ma'am." both of the other teenagers replied, secretly relieved. And it was at that point that Yellow almost ran into the front door.

She led the group inside, the receptionist looking up at the company's new source of income with a smile. "Welcome, you must be Yellow," she said.

"Yes, that's me." Yellow smiled back. "These are my guests for now. The League paid in advance for my stay, right?"

"They did." Yellow was handed a room key without hesitation. She thanked the woman and lead everyone up to a wall with a simple pair of elevators.

"Uh…" Riley looked the thing up and down as it opened, seeing Yellow return her pokemon to their pokeballs. "...Why are we cramming everyone into this tiny thing?"

Mesa smacked her forehead as she took Riley by the shoulder and steered him into the elevator, the pokemon that followed him trailing behind automatically until all of them were crammed inside the device.

Yellow hit the button, letting the doors close and sealing them in. Gauge promptly tried to get out, but Yellow held him back, telling him to relax and that it would be fine, and to hold back his electricity or they actually could get hurt.

Before Gauge could decide to just obliterate the door with lightning, the thing started moving up.

Riley very nearly stumbled with surprise, managing to maintain his dignity and posture in the end. "It's… Like the platform in Temporal Tower," he muttered.

"But in a fucking cage, why the hell didn't you warn me!?" Gauge demanded of Yellow, clearly angry.

"You might have made it really difficult to get you in here." Yellow explained "And it could take several more minutes to get up to our floor because of how big the building is. And the staircase is also somewhat cramped, which would take longer for you and potentially be worse."

"Open the window and let me damn fly in!"

"They don't open," Yellow muttered. "Not ours anyways."

"...Why is that?"

"They don't have balconies. They're large window panes that display the entire city. And this high up, you don't want people falling off. Not really built with flyers in mind, but the suite itself is large enough to house all of us."

The elevator dinged before Yellow could continue and both Riley and Gauge quickly escaped the confined space immediately, almost crashing into the opposite side of the corridor. Yellow flinched at the turmoil going on in Gauge's mind, but this was the place they needed to be. Gauge should not be left out where people could gawk at his wings and crowd him. A minute in the elevator was probably the best and easiest solution. Even if Gauge was angry with her for it.

But where Yellow was uncertain as to whether she had the courage to explain herself or not, Mesa had no such issues. "Cool it, cat, before you screw something up. You really want to wait outside overnight and be swarmed by ordinary humans who want to touch your wings?"

Yellow felt Gauge's emotions swiftly shift from angry to horrified at the mental image of having zero personal space and being left outside in potential weather, to frustration as his stubbornness kicked in, before resignation set in as he realized that none of the humans were seriously going to let him even try to tough it out outside when he could have been inside. She heard him realize he had to suck it up and deal with it, no matter how much the elevator had reminded him of his cage.

And finally, even though he wouldn't meet Yellow's eyes, she heard the reluctant yet genuine apology that floated through his thoughts, unwittingly directing it at her.

And deciding not to bring it up aloud, she silently and secretly accepted his apology. "Here." she said, walking to the end of the hall, where a room labeled 'Suite 20' on it. She swiftly sank the key down to its hilt in the lock and twisted it, opening the door to a bedroom the likes of which belonged in a mansion.

"You were not kidding," Mesa commented. "The league is treating you right."

"It helps that this place also has the toughest security." Yellow proclaimed "Considering if it didn't, there are enough rich people living here that are ripe for the picking for thieves."

"Yellow, the windows on the back wall **are** the back wall," Mesa said blandly

She chuckled nervously. "Yes, I suppose I get some special treatment…" she admitted. "My friends and I did put a stop to a lot of organizations that would have done a lot of damage in the long run, and then there's my position which is basically a position of power in the region. So I suppose there's a lot of incentive to treat me… Well…"

Scarlet noticed that Yellow was looking increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation, and bumped Mesa with her arm. "Should we set our stuff down?" she asked, attempting to distract both girls, glancing at Riley, who at this point seemed to be along for the ride but not saying anything. Riley saw Yellow nod, registering the relief on the blond girl's face, and carefully shrugged off his pack so as not to dislodge Scarlet.

As the boy set his pack against the wall near the door, Mesa kept hers on for the moment. She walked over and surveyed the room from the center. "One exit, unless we're prepared to jump through the window in an emergency," she announced. "No, no, the building has to follow fire safety protocol."

Yellow snatched up what looked like a brochure from the small kitchen counter as she passed it, opening it up. "The hotel has a trainer with an alakazam on duty at all times, in case of an emergency." she read, tossing the brochure at Mesa, who caught it with one hand while looking out the window.

Riley started looking around, but it wasn't five seconds into his own analysis before Scarlet pushed at his face a few times. "I don't really want to see Mesa punch you for doing anything other than relaxing," she told him as gently as she could manage.

While Scarlet jumped off, Riley obediently went and sat at the foot of the bed, looking anxious but trying not to flit his eyes about. It gave him the look of someone who had just been jumpscared by someone. The pichu felt bad seeing him like that, as when he was 'acting natural', including keeping an eye on everything, he seemed just fine, but being asked not to do it looked like it was **killing** him.

Was it even possible for Riley not to be stressed out?

Mesa set her pack down, taking her staff off of her back and setting it on the floor nearby. Then she patted herself down, and Yellow's eyes grew horrified as the adopted child of groudon unintentionally released clouds of dust from herself as she brushed at her cloak. "Eep! I'll get the vacuum…" she muttered, looking at the carpet that **used** to be white.

Mesa looked at the mess and at Yellow moving to get the device, and continued to brush herself off until she was satisfied none would end up on furniture like the bed. She was sure Yellow would understand.

"Next time, please take your… **outer** layer off before going inside a nice building." Yellow requested a little sternly

Mesa blinked.

"The dust." Yellow continued a little awkwardly. "That's… That's what I mean by outer layer."

"Certainly." Mesa agreed to Yellow's request. The shorter, blond girl blinked, wondering if it was really that easy. Mesa just seemed naturally intimidating. In fact, she could almost see Groudon's outline behind her, like she had grown so much into the role of big and imposing that she could truly be Groudon if she had to be.

And considering the apparently extremely complicated rules for which godchildren can transform into what in what ways, etcetera, Yellow thought it would hardly be inappropriate to ask. Later.

The tall teenager next carefully took off her earth-colored cloak and hung it up on the bronze colored coat hanger, just a little more dust floating off of it. This revealed the full details of the shirt she wore underneath that ended halfway to her elbow, showing off her toned and well-developed muscles. Amber hopped off of her shoulders as the smooth surface she sat on was removed, landing lightly on the floor and hopping right up onto the bed.

Yellow turned away, keeping an eye on everyone else. Riley seemed to be trying to make eye contact with Mesa, although she couldn't see quite whether Mesa was meeting his eyes or not; Yellow's back was turned. Amber had just discovered what a real first class bed felt like, and Scarlet was looking as if she wanted to join the eevee. Gauge was lying near the center of the large room with plenty of space around him, in a spot where he could feasibly turn his head and see most of the room, like a guard dog. Kurenai and Kazekai had taken to sitting on the carpet by the window together, the siblings talking quietly as if they were catching up even more than they already had, getting to know each other again and if Yellow was getting their thoughts right, trying to acquaint themselves with the personalities of one another now that both had experienced serious hardship, which should help them connect better.

She smiled and lifted her pokeballs up to her face, seeing her pokemon attentively looking at her. "Alright, guys," she whispered. "Everyone's doing their own thing, so I need you not to bother them just yet."

From their thoughts came a chorus of affirmatives impossible to hear by anyone other than Yellow, who opened their pokeballs and set the group down. Gravvy clearly wanted to talk to Mesa again, both being so attuned to the power of the earth, but the rest were content to check out the new room. Chuchu clambered onto Yellow's shoulder, taking a moment to straighten the blonde's hat that she had completely forgotten that she was wearing again.

"Oh, yes." she took off her hat, letting her hair spill out of it and passed Mesa in the effort to put it on the hanger. Once that was done, she moved back to the vacuum cleaner, already set to carpet rather than hard wood, and looked at Riley. "I'm going to turn this on." she warned him, "It's loud, so…"

"Go ahead." Riley nodded, moving his arms into a crossed-arm position so that if he instinctively drew his staff, he would be hard-pressed to do it in time before his conscious mind caught back up with him. Yellow saw this and nodded, turning it on. It wasn't as bad as Yellow suspected, but he was clearly jumpy enough to react to a loud noise even when he was prepared for it. " _This vacation might need to be longer than I thought_." Yellow mused in her mind as she swiftly sucked up the dirt that Mesa had left lying around. There would be more over time, she knew, but for now, the significant portion of the mess was cleaned up.

"It's like you're getting jumpier the longer time goes without something happening to you," Scarlet told Riley, who just nodded.

"Only a matter of time," Riley replied hollowly. Then he brightened. "Is there anything to do here?"

"Yes, there is." Yellow walked to the closet and opened it, revealing that the top shelf had board games and card decks, but before she could pick a game, Mesa cleared her throat. She was standing by the television, having snooped under it within the drawer of the strong cabinet it stood on. And she had pulled out a pair of objects as far as the wires would let them go. Both were box-like structures with disc slots in them and brand names and emblems. "Hey!"

Mesa looked at her evenly while Yellow looked embarrassed, Yellow was responding by getting more embarrassed. "Uh…"

"You play video games?"

Yellow couldn't understand the tone Mesa was using, which served to fluster her even more. "Well, yes, on occasion, when there's time to kill after work in the gym and there's no paperwork to do… It's a good way to waste time."

"Fine by me." Mesa crouched and continued rooting through the space under the television for where Yellow had hidden the games.

Yellow blinked. "Uh?"

"I said it's fine." Mesa rolled her eyes. "Why is it all of a sudden you think I'll assume things about you? Calm down, Yellow."

Yellow rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I've always tried to give the impression that I can be independent from human society," she said.

"And you think we'll get the impression that this means you can't?" Mesa pressed.

Yellow promptly realized how silly she sounded. Riley certainly wasn't the type to change his opinions on someone quickly, and Mesa always seemed calm and collected. She couldn't hear any degrading thoughts from **any** of the pokemon, as most other than hers didn't recognize the machines and Amber seemed more impressed than anything.

"Ehehe… Yes, I suppose I'm overreacting. I wasn't in such a good shape when someone revealed they knew I was a girl when I had been dressing as a boy…" she gave a mental curse at Green, wherever she was, for suggesting she disguise as a boy the first time. She still habitually tucked her hair in her hat occasionally. More than occasionally.

"It's all right," Mesa replied, her monotone almost making it seem false, but her expression said otherwise. Now the girl was picking out a few games. "A fan of the Pokemon World games, are you?"

"What?" Riley asked.

Yellow nodded, feeling sightly more enthusiastic. "Yes, it's quite an extensive series, and the thought of being a pokemon when you're already so connected to them like I am, it's an enticing thought."

"Uh…" this from Riley, who was looking between the two girls.

"As for the rest, other than thisone,." she flashed a game box with four strange looking jolteons on the cover racing 'towards' the person looking at it. The one on the left pink with a black 'M' of some description on their forehead, a white variant with a red 'M', a black variant with a red 'M', and what looked to be a mechanical version with silver coloring but a glass-like, glowing blue 'M'. "They hardly seem to be multiplayer material."

"That's true enoug," Yellow responded. "But there are plenty of them. And they help soak up time about as fast as reading does, which helps the boredom a lot."

"Er…" Riley muttered.

"I haven't even seen this one," Mesa commented. "Not many racing games around."

"You've played these before?" Yellow asked, bewildered. Riley had been pretty much isolated from non-pokemon culture except for a few times that he talked about, like sneaking into a theater once to see what it was like. " _Wait…"_

"Yes, I have," Mesa responded.

Mesa looked at her orange haired friend just as Riley asked: "What's a video game?"

The girls stared at him for about ten seconds in silence.

"...What?"

* * *

 **Boom! Boom! Kaboom!**

"Well done, Matt."

The xerneas hybrid, in said hybrid form, huffed in exhaustion. His fists and the hoof-like extensions on the back of his forearms smoked, but didn't feel burnt. In front of him were a load of what used to be boulders that had been brought about by helpful forest pokemon (that the boy had personally asked to help gather his target practice tools) and had been subsequently reduced to gravel.

"That's gonna be hard to clean up…" he muttered.

"Yes, it will, but it was hardly any different from when I myself began to learn the art," Xerneas replied, stepping up to analyze the rubble. "It seems you truly understand the basic moonblast. And in the process, you understand the feeling that the fairy type gives you."

Matt looked at his smoking hand. "It feels very energizing…" he muttered. "Just… Powerful."

"Is it easier to sense when you know what it feels like?" his mother questioned. Matt continued looking at his palm.

"More like I can't stop sensing it." he elaborated. "It's… Distracting."

Xerneas winced. "That I did not expect," she admitted. "You have my power coursing through your body. In my body, as a legendary, that power is easily subdued when I wish to focus. For you, it seems you will have to get used to having it."

Matt took a deep breath and then released it in a single gust of air. "...Okay. How do I do that?"

"...Let's find out."

Ten minutes later, Marigold approached her son's teacher. "Xerneas," she spoke up. "I understand that giving humans the power of gods is a **very** experimental thing. Regardless… I thought that some thought would have gone into how limited they would be."

Her tone made it clear she thought this was an irresponsible action. Xerneas turned somewhat guilty yet calm eyes to the gardevoir/human hybrid as she said "I am well aware of our faults, Marigold. But it would have been impossible to truly understand how the human body reacts to that power. They could have had our full strength, or they could have had almost nothing, not even an extra form. Believe me when I say that the only consolation I can possibly give is that I did give Matt the choice."

Marigold tilted her head forward somewhat. "...And I appreciate that. I am aware that not all events ended similarly."

Xerneas blinked.

"The child of time?" Marigold prompted. "He protected us from Pariah. That is who I speak of."

"Yes, I remember him," Xerneas answered honestly, but automatically, before the rest of the details clicked. "And the boy had no clue as to his adopted heritage. Do remind me to moonblast Dialga when I see him next."

"Really?" Marigold raised a brow.

Xerneas chuckled and shook her head. "No, I suppose not. Although I will give him a stern talk, no matter how many people will have done the same by then. But considering his encounter with us, I wonder how long it would have taken him to discover the truth on his own. Would he know by now?"

"The gods have a collective degree in speculation without data," Marigold commented drily.

Xerneas could only express a tight, forced smile. "...Yes. Yes, we do. Matt, is there any progress on pushing the power back?"

The boy had heat rising from the nearby plants near him. "If anything, trying to push it down by focusing on it's making it come out more," he complained with his eyes closed. "It's not like the moonblast at all when it's in my entire body, and it's harder to manipulate…"

"As is fairy energy…" Xerneas murmured. "Matt, you need to let the energy flow where it wants to go. Like a river. You opened a valve and allowed the moonblast to leave you with only a little prompting. Treat it like a river."

"A river going outwards in all directions?" Matt asked skeptically. "It want's to go **everywhere** , unlike before when I was just sending it out of my hand."

Xerneas closed her eyes for a minute, trying to think their way out of this dilemma. Finally, sighing, she looked Matt in the eye. "Are you uncomfortable?"

Matt shook his head. "It's just distracting."

She closed her eyes again. "Hmm… Do not just let it all out, you will accidentally unleash a burst of fairy type energy, likely in the form of the dazzling gleam attack in all directions." she advised "But as for dealing with it, I do not know. I'm sorry I must put you to this, but you will have to find a way to manage that power using your intuition."

"Of course, Xerneas." Matt nodded.

The legendary winced slightly. Had Matt just started being formal with her again?

Matt asked for privacy, which quickly drove the two adult females away, although the eavesdropping seasonal deerling continued their eavesdropping ways.

While Matt sat in a meditative position, Marigold addressed Xerneas a ways away.

"I don't know what to do." Marigold confided in the legendary promptly. "Right now, all Matt really needs is you. He has a new life, and despite being pulled in by the golden girl, I need Matt more than he needs me. My powers are that of a gardevoir's if not less. I understand nothing about the magic you possess and cannot use it myself to defend my family. I feel useless."

Xerneas held a blank look as Marigold continued. "If someone attacks who even compares to Matt, I can't protect my only son. I don't know what to do."

The resulting pause was long enough for Marigold to notice the look on Xerneas' face. Then, to the surprise of the mother, Xerneas began to chuckle.

"Xerneas?" she asked.

"If you're so sure you can't do anything…" Xerneas said. "I should probably tell you that I've gotten my tail handed to me by a gardevoir before."

Marigold blinked, finding that her voice was failing her.

"It was maybe fifty years ago, " Xerneas said. "I visited one of the secret homes of the shaymin to find that it wasn't as secret as before. A trainer had gotten in, badly wounded from an attack. I gathered later that it had been a sneak attack from a fairy type pokemon. A gardevoir tended to his trainer's wounds, but I walked in on this. And the garevoir presumed I had been the one to attack."

Marigold almost asked 'and then?' but realized she was already given the answer. "He trashed me." Xerneas continued with a small smile. "Even as I defended myself, I was struck with a wide variety of ghost and psychic type attacks and eventually beaten into the ground. I only got one good shot off, and they had teleported away, a trick I do not know myself. Then, I awoke, feeling my body healing rapidly, but I had still been beaten."

Marigold didn't say a word, even though Xerneas had paused in case she wanted to. Finally, Xerneas finished. "It wasn't until I had fully regained my senses that I was able to explain the circumstance. But my point is this. You can't look me directly in the eyes when you talk about not being strong enough. But I can be taken down by someone just like you."

When Marigold was still trying to come up with a response to that that would not seem so cheesy, Xerneas playfully bumped the hybrid with her hoof. "How is that for 'useless'?" she asked, smiling reassuringly.

Marigold finally decided to abandon speaking and smiled back, grateful for the talk. "I should probably get to training my psychic power again."

"That's the spirit, Marigold. I would be happy to help you." Xerneas told the woman.

"I would appreciate that."

* * *

If there was anything Zach learned, if there was a way not to be noticed while being a wanted man, walk around in broad daylight. People look for shady guys, keeping on their toes in case something jumps out of the shadows and tries to mutilate them.

No, walking like a normal person means people don't even look at your face when you're in a highly populated city.

" _Oh, that guy's walking around like the rest of us, he must be so kind and conforming."_ The man silently mocked the crowd in his mind, giving one random person a smile and a wave, receiving a smile back. " _Oh man, Kanto. I love it. They're so used to the bad guys being in costume."_

" _Wait, that's every bloody region nowadays."_

The man brushed his hair away from his face and looked around. He prided himself as an excellent tracker, considering an assassin needs to be good at finding his prey.

But that turquoise eyed bastard had managed to disappear, which was an amazing feat because the kid didn't show too many brain cells other than pure combat skill. And it was also almost impressive because he snuck away wearing those boots of his.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty," Zach muttered to himself once he could do so without being heard. He poked his head around a corner and, seeing nothing, turned around.

" _Okay, so the gym leader, the kid, and the scary lady are over there…"_ he looked at the large building visible above the rest over the nearby buildings. " _But I know he didn't see those kids. If he did, he'd probably have made a beeline for the blonde. So they're safe and he's wandering about, but he's probably going to be harmless until he sees Yellow."_

Which, he concluded, meant that if he decided to keep the kids alive, he was going to have to find the assassin duplicate and wipe him out.

" _Geez…"_ He thought to himself. " _When did I get sentimental?"_

Probably about the time he realized that he had an opponent that actually held a candle to him. And he knew his rival would probably be crushed so badly by the loss of any of his friends that he'd be as easy to knock over as a magikarp.

Zach slipped around another corner at random, wondering if he should go get himself some food.

* * *

"No, no!"

"Yes, yesyesyes!"

Riley was lying back against the bed, finding himself trying to think about the mess that was probably going to inevitably land on his heads and ultimately failing. Doing this for the past several hours had made it difficult to be stressed.

Even if he lost every damn time.

He looked up to see Yellow and Mesa, the former cheering herself and the latter, huffing in defeat. "I will admit it. You run a great kabutops."

"The game plays most of the rock and/or ground types as slower than you fight, Mesa, and I think that mix up in your pacing is screwing up your game," Yellow advised her friend as the fighting game before the game declared Kabutops the victor.

"Kabutops are a sorry excuse for a rock type, taking Kyogre's side," Mesa grumbled in sudden frustration. "Relicanth too, thinking about it…"

Riley sat up. "You guys keep destroying me…" he complained, having lost far before that in the game.

"You have no excuse," Mesa told him flatly, gesturing at him with her controller. "Your reflexes are advanced by **time manipulation** abilities."

"That doesn't mean these buttons want me to win…" Riley pouted.

"I personally want to think it's because we're that good." Yellow smiled.

"...No, I'm that bad." Riley mumbled.

"He's that bad." Mesa agreed.

"I wanna play!" Amber exclaimed.

"Your paws are too small," Mesa explained. "And you lack fingers."

"Rude…" Kurenai mumbled at Mesa from where she and Kazekai watched.

"She's fine. I accept my terrible-ness." Riley picked up his controller.

"Add me in, earth girl, I wanna see if I can do it!" Amber demanded, fiddling with the joysticks on the little controller.

"Okay, Amber." Yellow answered instead, looking at Mesa with a look meaning 'she really means she wants to play'. Both girls moved to get to the screen on the device to add new players, only to cancel each other out having hit the same button.

Mesa silently gestured for the gym leader to go ahead, so Yellow added the controller Amber had at her less than capable paws.

"Why are all these fighting games and racing games using pokemon?" Riley asked a little irritably. "Really."

"Because pokemon have all the powers and most humans are kind of pathetic?" Mesa asked.

"But I wanna see a bunch of humans getting their asses kicked for a change," Riley complained.

"Then go rampage through a team rocket base." Mesa shrugged, but stopped cold. "No, do **not** take me up on that offer. It's getting dark, and you are under vacation arrest."

"That's not even a thing!" Riley complained.

" _He_ _ **did**_ _read the police handbook thing."_ Mesa thought, allowing her eyes to widen somewhat. Then she smirked and drooped her eyes. "I'm making it a thing. Want to challenge me about it?"

Riley got up. "Any day," he promised, reaching for his staff.

 **Wham!**

Mesa slowly pulled her fist out of Riley's stomach while the child of time dropped to the ground in pain. "We won't start without you." she promised as she moved the game to the character select screen again, moving through the huge roster of over sixty pokemon for use in battle and picked a luxray this time.

"Yeah, but does he have wings?" Kurenai heard Gauge mutter.

She turned and smiled at him. "Hey~ Are you having fun?"

"No." he turned away.

"So what, they release a bunch of these or something?" Riley asked, seating himself back on the bed and swiftly picking lucario. He saw Amber using one button at a time to pick a ditto, as Yellow went with kabutops again.

"Oh yes." Yellow said. "There are a lot of pokemon in the world after all, and they can only pack so much into each. There are ones that stick around of course, like fighting types and others that clearly fit, but they make profits because the average kid will always be excited to play as something new. Kind of like how they release phones that are substantially similar with just a touch of an upgrade to various functions, like, yearly."

"Amber, you should probably pick again. Ditto's not going to be useful unless you know how to use any pokemon the other players are using." Mesa advised.

"Stuff it and watch me kick your asses!" Amber challenged brashly, focusing as she sits before the controller, her paws on it and ready to go.

"Fine." the child of earth said as she hit play and selected a stage called 'Industrial'.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Yellow muttered.

"If you can't handle the clinklangs and their hazardous charge beams, that's on you." Mesa shot back.

Yellow grumbled but watched as the game started. Amber's thoughts were reaching her ears, so she turned around towards Amber again. "Ditto can't do anything unless you hit down and 'b' first," she said, trying to be helpful.

Amber looked conflicted for a moment. "Uh, thanks, but can you not read my mind? That's kinda cheating."

"Eep, sorry!" Yellow turned back just in time to start playing.

"Why is lucario practically floating?" Riley asked, "It's like gravity's half-assing it."

Amber managed to pull down on a joystick and press the 'B' button, and the ditto promptly flashed and became the pokemon closest to it on the screen. This happened to be lucario, and Amber went immediately for Riley's game character.

"Hey, we should be ganging up on those two!" Riley whined as he defended himself better than Amber could really attack because unlike dexterous human fingers, Amber could only do two things at a time, and her button mashing was more like a person typing on a keyboard with one finger from each hand.

"Can it, clockhead! You've been being awesome left and right while I sit around being useless or getting captured or something else! Now sit still and let me kick your ass!"

"I'm **definitely** not gonna do that after being called 'clockhead'," Riley said good-naturedly as he promptly figured out which button did the grabbing move and threw the ditto in the air, right in the middle of the fight Mesa and Yellow were having, the luxray pulling off a wild charge through the air and ramming it. The kabutops and the ditto/lucario went flying.

Amber button mashed like the maniac eevee that she was and eventually got the down 'b' special activated again, but instead of a lucario's technique, ditto just transformed into kabutops, which led Amber to vocally wonder what the heck was going on before she forgot to get back onto the stage and fell off rather pitifully.

"That sucked," Amber grumbled through gritted teeth.

Mesa and Yellow's epic duel sent Riley's character offscreen as collateral damage.

"That **sucked**!" Riley groaned, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. Yet both had another few lives to burn and so they kept trying.

"Stop. Spamming. Thunder." Yellow ordered in frustration.

"No." Mesa spammed thunder some more, finally costing Yellow her first life.

" **You're** not supposed to know how to use lightning, earth girl!"

"Lightning's the simplest thing on the planet, blast and things explode!"

"There's way more to it, like every rule revolving around conductivity!"

"How would I know that? My conductivity is zero, Yellow. Zero."

"You know lots of things and school Riley on a regular basis now and you didn't bother to learn how electricity works?"

"Stop getting distracted."

Then the both of them got nailed by one of the stage hazards because Amber of all people used the ditto's lucario form to knock them up in the air (without any idea that the hazard was there) and the luxray went sailing offscreen while the kabutops persisted due to not having enough damage taken.

Mesa grumbled at the screen. "Fine, fox, if you want to play that way… I'll **play that way**."

All of this was in good fun, the anger being expressed. Who doesn't feel like shouting when they lose? And nobody thought any less of anyone else during the experience. But this continued on for some odd hours as the sky turned dark before Yellow sighed and turned the television off. "That was fun," she said, sinking onto the bed.

"Okay, Amber, even though you got last place every time, I'll concede that you **can** put up a fight using that controller." Mesa agreed.

"I **still** say Yellow read my mind when I tried to sneak up on her," Amber grumbled, pouting.

"We're on one screen, Amber. I have eyeballs." Yellow defended herself.

"Apparently not, like twenty minutes ago you were complaining because you got lost!"

"Somebody made a darkrai appear and change the stage, it went dark, okay?"

Mesa did her best not to smirk.

"That was cool, that they made the stage just fall into that nightmare realm and change that much. It threw Mesa off enough for me to punch her out of the way."

"You got a consistent third." Mesa retorted. "Because Amber was playing. Otherwise, it would have been **last**."

"But still third." Yellow pointed out.

Mesa grunted. "Point."

"This is a totally different side of you, Mesa." Riley said, acting much calmer. This observation was out of the blue and none of the girls new how to respond, so Riley continued. "I mean it. When you're not doing this, it's all calm, logical stuff when you're not smashing something, and otherwise you don't let anything stand in your way. It's just a bit weird seeing you act so differently once you two are staring at this screen."

The human girls gave each other a glance, and turned back to him. "Okay." Mesa eventually said, choosing not to comment. She instead turned to Yellow" Since we are all calm now, should we not do some tests with Yellow's power?"

"That was fast…" Yellow muttered, wondering why Mesa had changed the subject so quickly after Riley's words. Was she… Unhappy that she had lost her composure during the game, even less happy that Riley had noticed? Brought attention to it?

Mesa responded by letting her chest glow as the drought stone pushed out of her chest, directly below her neck as the rest of her body grew in size and took on the features of groudon once more, her eyes now a distinct yellow color. "Can you hear the thoughts in my head?" she asked.

Yellow promptly tuned in after so long of trying not to listen for Amber's sake. The thoughts of all the pokemon in the room flooded back to her, making her wince as she tried to pinpoint where everyone was by the sound of their thoughts alone.

Eventually, she identified a new voice. Faint, but it was there.

" _Hello, Yellow."_

Yellow blinked, hearing Mesa's voice, looking the girl in the eyes. She hadn't physically spoken. "Uh… It's fainter than I'm used to, but yes. I can hear you." she confirmed, breaking into a smile.

Mesa nodded. "Now to test your healing abilities," she said.

Yellow blinked. "But you don't have any-"

Mesa reached into her cloak, whipped out a pocketknife, and cut a very light cut into her arm, light enough that it bled little but still noticeable. It looked like it too a lot of effort even to damage herself with the blade.

"...Wounds…" Yellow finished lamely, looking at Mesa. Sensing the groudon girl just wanted to get it over with and move away from the conversation they had been having just before, she decided not to question the girl and instead set her hands aglow with her power, moving them over the shallow cut on Mesa's arm.

Sure enough, it sealed itself. It healed noticeably slower than a full pokemon's wound would, but not **that** slow. Mesa still healed relatively quickly. Yellow took her hands away with a satisfied look on her face.

"Guess what, Riley," Yellow said. "As soon as you figure out how to go half dialga, you won't ever need a hospital again."

"But didn't I nearly waste myself last time I tried?" Riley asked a bit skeptically.

"Idiot…" Mesa muttered, "That happened because you overexerted yourself trying."

"...Right."

"I think you're tired, Riley," Yellow observed needlessly. "It's affecting your thoughts, slowing you down. You're not thinking your words through all the time, and you need some proper rest."

Riley couldn't take the worried look in her eyes, and he looked down. "I know," he said.

"I think you should go to bed… After you take a shower." Yellow persisted.

"...Sure, Yellow. Can I at least try to see if I can shift this time?"

Yellow smiled. "As long as you promise to stop the moment Mesa tells you to, just in case," she told him, moving away to check on the other pokemon.

Mesa now looked at him. "Go on. Breathe deeply, and summon the power you felt from within."

Riley, feeling more relaxed than the last time he tried it, all things considered, tried to find that energy again. The same energy he'd unknowingly used for years and years to move faster. Like before, it boiled deep, far deeper than it should. Mesa's power worked with complete ease. Groudon's energy must flow through her every pore.

Which begged the question, why was Riley able to use the power throughout his entire body if the energy didn't flow through his entire body?

Ding-ding-ding….

He thought about how he moved fast, but then something occurred to him. The 'blinking' thing that people had repeatedly told him he'd done, like in the House of Horror. He didn't know what the hell they were talking about, but there must have been some energy involved somewhere. He looked around for something heavy.

"Riley, if you're thinking about throwing Yellow's furniture around, I"m going to punch you again," Mesa warned promptly, already knowing him well enough at this point to get what he was doing. "Yellow doesn't own them, and if they break, it's coming out of all of our wallets. But mostly yours."

Riley froze. "Uh…"

"We're on the topic of energy, you have one power that involves other objects, and your eyes were flitting about to them." Mesa shrugged slightly. "It wasn't that hard."

"Wait…" Riley looked her up and down. "Groudon's a heavy pokemon, right?"

 **Wham.**

"Rude…" Kurenai mumbled from across the room.

"You deserved it," Amber told him bluntly.

Riley coughed a few times. "I just wanted to know if I could use the strength thing to get that energy to the surface…" he muttered. Then he just sighed and tried to think about what the difference was between his boosted running and normal running. But he just… Did it. That was the problem. He had almost literally hardwired himself to use those powers more efficiently in his human body than normal, which had the consequence of something. He hadn't gotten that far yet in his thinking.

He found his energy again and tried to pull it forth using some basic mental stimuli. Like before, it struggled to respond as he tried to make it expand.

"Relax," Mesa ordered, walking around behind him. Riley stiffened up even more in a combination of worrying about where the fist-happy groudon girl was and 'trying' to calm down, which made him more stressed.

Then Mesa began massaging his shoulders. "You're stiffer than steel," she grunted. "And this is when you've been playing fun videogames for hours **after** eating ice cream.

Riley winced in pain from the fingers pushing against his shoulder blades and shoulders, and the area directly under his neck. "Gah, why does that hurt so bad?"

"Because you're stressed." came the thankfully straightforward answer. "Now shut up and close your eyes."

While Riley obeyed, Mesa continued giving him orders. "Breath slowly and deeply. Keep your focus on the energy of the Adamant Orb in your chest," she said. "Father said it was a beautiful crystal polyhedron with uneven sides and emanated a blue-white color. A better mental image to think of as an anchor than just energy. You have to turn that energy into its true form in the end anyhow."

Riley couldn't stop thinking though. Despite his best efforts, his mind consistently flitted to every danger he has fought and survived, knowing they were still out there and could potentially tear his life down if he wasn't careful. It was a no brainer that he found it impossible not to think about. The people he cared about were obviously in constant danger, and he was the only one who could-

Mesa frowned as she felt the boy seem even more tense, found a pressure point, and pressed down hard. Riley yelped and tried to escape promptly as pain overloaded him for a moment. "Tell me what you were thinking about." Mesa ordered, frowning.

Riley was quick to obey. "About how dangerous everything is and how I need to… Protect everyone," he said. Someone deep in his mind, something told him that he had said that a lot recently.

"You throw out that word like candy," Mesa grumbled. "Listen to me and listen well. Gauge is here, Yellow is here, and I am here. We are all well capable of fending off untold numbers of people. Kurenai can hold her own in battle if she really must, Kazekai is fully capable. Scarlet and Amber even have some training. Then, inside this building and around town are seven other gym leaders who are nearly as capable as Yellow and routinely kick ass. Then there's an entire police force on top watch because of all the important things happening. Because the gym leader meeting thing isn't consistently dated throughout the regions, it's not happening anywhere else. Do I have to tell you what that means?"

There was a long pause before Riley honestly nodded.

"It means…" she leaned close. "You are quite literally in the safest place in the world known to man right now. And I swear to Arceus if you can't relax knowing all of that, I don't think you'll ever find your dialga form. And even now it's going to take practice and time to recondition your body to accept that as your true form after so many years of using it wrong. Do you understand?"

Riley wasn't about to just nod and let it slide. Mesa knew him too well, and he didn't want any more punches, so he thought about it carefully. Trauma-induced paranoia aside, her words made sense. Too much sense. So much sense that he was embarrassed that he didn't have the mental fortitude to think even that far ahead, and had to have the pretty girl sum it up for him.

He nodded again.

"Then remember what I said before. Envision the adamant orb. Do everything I said to calm yourself."

Riley closed his eyes again, but against his will, the thoughts of danger just wouldn't leave his head. The tension wouldn't leave his shoulders despite Mesa's best efforts. Eventually, Riley just lost patience and tried to bring it about using his method from last time, but stopped per Mesa's orders when he felt the pain in his chest start.

He sat back while Mesa backed off. He watched her slump into the couch to his right. "Officer Jenny is going to be fucking **overjoyed** when she hears this." Mesa groaned sarcastically.

"What?" Riley asked a bit irritably.

"It's possible you have an honest-to-god case of post-traumatic stress disorder. After… Less than three months, was it? Three bloody months in the human world. I'm not sure, I haven't seen the symptoms in person, but you've been through a lot of trauma, have stress that won't go away despite all logic, even when **you** get it.

She was rubbing her eyes at this point. Something was going on in her head, Riley figured, but he was a bit busy processing what the dark skinned girl had actually said.

He opened his mouth, but Mesa chose to ask something at the same time. "Do I treat you too roughly?"

"What?"

"I'm never afraid to punish you for doing something wrong physically. Is that too much for you?" she asked. Her tone of voice was laced with her own stress, in truth originating from her frustration at not being able to handle something herself, in this case being Riley's personal issues.

"No," Riley answered honestly, getting a little creeped out by the more reserved version of Mesa. "In fact, whenever you do it, I actually use my head more because I don't want to be punched again. I think I've been making some smarter decisions because I do that, and you're driving that impulsiveness away… And probably saving me from failing completely, as I might have done in the most recent weeks from all the stress. It's been harder and harder to actually think."

Mesa lost the uncertain composure and went back to being the person Riley was comfortable with in moments. "Good. Just curious. Now, this has to be dealt with, but it's late. You go shower. Maybe focus just on the heat of the shower. Be careful, though; If you dredge up the steel typing from that energy in the shower, the heat might leave you uncomfortable for longer than you'd like… Not that I want you trying transformation without supervision right now. Don't try to transform tonight period."

"Yes, ma'am." Riley agreed, going to take the shower as directed. It being the only truly uneventful thing of the day, he emerged half an hour later to see Mesa ready to take her turn.

"Whoa, you're going in the water?" Riley asked.

Mesa narrowed her eyes. "Just because I'm a ground type inside doesn't mean I don't need washing. And if I contain my power completely, the water will react as if I am a normal human."

Riley nodded. "Got it."

Mesa paused next to Riley for a moment, and Riley paused too.

"I act the same way around you as I do around just about everybody." she said quietly yet in her usual tone of voice. "Which begs the question… Why are you so comfortable around me?"

"Uh…" Riley whispered back, not knowing the answer.

"I already know, clockhead." Mesa smirked, earning a 'hey!' from Amber, who somehow sensed her insult being stolen. "Just needed to check to know whether you did."

She then walked into the bathroom as Riley stared after her.

"Are you going to stand there or will I be dragging you into your bed?" Yellow asked. "You're sleeping with Mesa."

"Wait, why am I sleeping with her?" Riley asked, dumbfounded.

"Because I want a bed to myself and Kazekai has the couch," Yellow said bluntly, having a very similar smirk to Mesa's. "You're used to sleeping with girls, right?"

"Yeah, but what if Mesa fights something in her dreams? It'll be way worse than when Amber did that triple evolution thing when I slept on mom's roof." Riley asked.

Yellow rolled her eyes. "Shut up and get some sleep."


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five: Threat

**Oh my god I uploaded a thing.**

 **So last week, I finally acquired the free time and the motivation to write out the last seven thousand words of this chapter. It took quite a while, this section was probably the most ambiguously planned in my head, and I wanted it to go just right.**

 **Some of these reviews may be a bit outdated in terms of the information within that pertains to the reviewer because it's been so long. Case in point, West, I imagine six months is enough time to get better. I appreciate you taking the time to explain why you couldn't give an in-depth review of the chapter.**

 **To Aewynessa, EVERYONE seems to hardcore ship Riley and Yellow. Everybody. I'm glad I managed to succeed in making all of their shenanigans funny, and yes, that is supposed to be this world's version of smash bros, with plenty of pokemon. As a side note, I've always wanted absol to be in smash bros, but I figure adding a quadruped to the mechanics of the game may be difficult.**

 **As for Xerneas attacking Dialga, It'll be a while yet before she has to decide whether to do it or not.**

 **If Aewynessa thought she shipped Riley and Yellow hardcore, ARSLOTHES ships her twice in two reviews in one day. Man, the shipping amongst my readers is super real, and amusing.**

 **Referring AveragePichu to my minirant above in my reply to Aewynessa.**

 **Now for some even newer people. Verdauga reviewed the chapters as he read through them over a couple days, giving quick opinions on things they noticed, which I found amusing and also helpful because it's further information about how it makes people feel. They also managed to magically do two reviews on chapter eight, according to my review page...**

 **Finally, UncleInTheAttic. This review is more recent, and to give the summary of my response, here's the new chapter for you, more story written. You cement your place as hardest RileyXYellow shipper by calling it a 'fact'. Pariah was NOT the guy from the celebi movie. He uses dark balls, but they aren't the same person. That being said, he definitely is an easy character to hate. And Riley can't turn his muscles into steel cables.**

 **I don't remember fixing up his metal shirt any time recently... Over the course of the story, both metal lace garments have been damaged to the point of being unusable, from Mute to Dizzy to Ember.**

 **I appreciate the praise you give me as well as pointing out potential mistakes I've made. The latter helps a lot and the former, well, it's praise. It's hard to say 'no'.**

 **Thank you all for joining me today for chapter twenty-five of New Age.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Five: Threat**

Riley woke up to Amber sleeping on his face again.

He had to sneeze now that he was waking up, so he took the liberty to lift her off of him gently and hold her away while sneezing away from her. The sneeze woke Amber up, of course.

"The heck? Why are you holding me by my shoulders like a doll!?" the small fox started to squirm.

"You really only have yourself to blame." Riley deadpanned, setting her on the bed beside him. "How exactly is my face a comfortable place to sleep?"

She didn't answer, she just huffed and hopped off the bed. Riley sat up slowly, realizing that sunlight was coming through the window. Had he actually gotten to sleep? He felt absolutely full of energy. It had been kind of a half-sleep as usual, but nothing interrupted it.

The air was just so quiet, even with Amber making noise as she grumbled to herself. Riley started to look in various directions, gauging his surroundings. Gauge and Kazekai had the couch, and Kurenai was near his feet on top of the covers at the bottom of the bed, curled up. Scarlet, he found next to where his head had just been, but she hadn't been sleeping on it like Amber had. The pichu still slept despite the racket Amber made.

Riley looked to his right. Mesa, on the other hand, had woken up. She was clearly not a morning person. Her hair was messy and out of style, and her eyes held that 'talk to me and I'll kill you' look.

Riley heeded the unspoken threat and gently picked Scarlet off of the bed and held her gently while he escaped from the bed. This woke up Kurenai, who gave a kind of 'mrr?' noise as she woke up, only to seemingly sense the vibes Mesa was putting off, and, quickly adding her usual tough love habits with her current bad mood, Kurenai decided to follow Riley.

Yellow proved to be considerably less fearless compared to Riley. "Trouble waking up, earth girl?"

Yellow ducked the TV remote thrown at her and smiled.

"Shut up. It's just been a while since I've slept in a proper bed." Mesa grunted at her. "Why the hell are you waking up so early?"

"Amber was sleeping on my face and she's not stealthy enough to do anything without making noise after I had her get off," Riley responded simply, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Hey!" Amber yipped at Riley, irritated at being called out, but then she shivered and looked up away from the redhead. Mesa loomed over her, eyes glinting. "Uh…"

Mesa picked her up by the scruff, scowling at her. "Do **not** be so inconsiderate of others who are sleeping, fox, you got that?"

"Yes, ma'am…" Amber replied, realizing making Mesa angry was a poor choice. Mesa lifted her over to the bed and dropped her on it.

Riley was conflicted. He hadn't wanted to wake up so early either, and could see where Mesa was coming from, and he knew he'd invited Mesa along, but Amber hadn't exactly been out of line. It was how she normally acted, and it hadn't ever caused too much of a problem before. He had the sense Mesa was a very complicated person, but she had handled the situation by intimidating Amber.

Mesa brought her arms up, distracting Riley as she brushed her hair behind her shoulders and smoothed it down, and rubbing her eyes to get rid of the sleep. She discovered his gaze by happening to look at him at the right time. "Something you need?" She asked with a raised brow.

" _What should I say?"_ He asked himself " _I could mention that scaring Amber isn't the way to go about it, and I should. But I also have lots of other things I could say right now that are also important, like… Stuff about what we'll do today. But…"_

He sighed. "Please don't go scaring Amber like that." he finally offered. "She's the sassiest eevee around, but her attitude and the humor she brings pretty much keeps me on my feet nowadays."

Mesa didn't respond right away to this, though Amber was staring at Riley in pure shock, partially at Riley's tone of voice, which gave the impression that he was carrying a ton of weight on his shoulders and that he was tired, and partially at the words itself. Admitting that he wasn't carrying all the weight by himself, that he needed other people.

Amber didn't think it would last. Soon, Riley would be back to feeling like he needed to be the one to protect everyone else. He probably still did think that. He was just managing to admit that he needed everyone else to take some of the stress off, maybe not the weight.

Yellow and Mesa reached this same conclusion, but all three girls thought it was best to surreptitiously take some of the weight itself off of him too.

The other males, Gauge and Kazekai, were now the only ones still asleep. Well, Kazekai was. Kurenai peeked at Gauge and saw his breathing wasn't as steady as it would have been if he was actually asleep, so it seemed he was trying to stay out of the conversation.

Mesa didn't have a real response to that, but she seemed to have woken up somewhat and looked less irritable. "...That's fair," she said, glancing at Amber. "But I do not like people assaulting my ears right when I wake up, alright?"

Riley and Yellow didn't have a clear way to make a compromise between the two. Amber was impulsive. Mesa strongarmed things and had a strict set of rules regarding her own personal space. The two weren't likely to get along all the time, and that wasn't something they could just resolve on the fly.

Then Amber piped up. "Sure, whatever. I don't think Riley has a clue what I'm actually saying until he's actually woken up properly, so whatever."

There was an awkward silence, so Riley tried desperately to come up with something else to say, anything else that didn't have to do with the imminent threats and other things that the girls didn't want him to talk about because it was keeping his stress level high, or something about trauma, or whatever. Something, anything, and his mind was running a mile a minute, but only about pretty depressing or scary things. After last night's talk, it wasn't just Yellow and Mesa and everyone else that caught the redhead glancing occasionally towards the window and the door as if on guard, Riley caught himself doing it too, but he didn't know how to relax enough to **not** do that, so something, anything was what he tried to come up with.

"By the way, how do you know where all the dirt you're covered in is when you shower if your skin's dirt colored too?" he asked, immediately realizing he sounded like an absolute idiot.

"Seriously?" Amber asked. " **That's** what you call a segue?"

"Don't judge me, fox." he grumbled.

"Okay, I'll do it for her." Mesa had a brow raised. "And to answer that… Question, I just wash everything, like you're **supposed** to in a shower. Are you saying you only washed what you saw was dirty?"

"Wha- No!" Riley shook his head rapidly. "I did the same thing, I just…"

"You're just silly," Yellow smirked, but then her expression fell. "I'm going to be very busy today, so you all are going to have to find something to do without me while I'm meeting with the other gym leaders."

Riley opened his mouth, but found Mesa's hand covering it just as quickly. Mesa instead looked Yellow in the eye. "You will have one of us keeping you safe. But that person's gonna be me. **Riley** will be relaxing in the city." she asserted, and her grip tightened on Riley. "And if you argue, Riley, well, don't."

Mesa let go of his face, leaving him rubbing at it and grimacing due to her strength. He didn't say a word, knowing full well when he was put in his place, and Mesa was probably stronger than he was anyways…

Yellow grimaced at the depressed look that came over Riley's face a few seconds after Mes let him go, wishing he wouldn't keep doing that to himself. Not being the strongest seemed to be a common thing for Riley to focus on, so Yellow was able to guess that was what had brought him to agree. This left Yellow and most of the others in quite a quandary; They needed Riley to comply with what they needed to do for his sake, but they didn't want to make him feel utterly worthless in the process.

Yellow at this point thought her only option was to reconcile the boy once both he and herself were out of danger. She still wanted to say something, anything, to lighten his mood before they went. But she couldn't give him a chance to re-insert himself into the situation.

So it was with silence that she got ready for her day. She had to wear her gym leader attire-slash-disguise, meaning she had to act totally differently until she got to the actual meeting. If she was lucky, she might meet some old friends too. As the other guys groggily woke up. Pokemon had it really easy in some ways, like not having an inherent obligation to wear clothing or do makeup.

Scarlet and Kurenai hung out with Riley while he had lied back on the bed. Everyone else tried not to feel bad about leaving him to sulk.

Yellow appeared in her gym leader disguise, feeling like she was actually trying to be someone she was not rather than just wearing a costume for her own protection. She thought she would have preferred the latter.

"You look really nice." Kurenai complemented Yellow, trying to make her feel better because she sensed how uneasy Yellow was.

Yellow heard the thoughts and turned to Kurenai, smiling and nodding her thanks.

Yellow's things were ready, and she turned to Mesa, seeing that the other girl had gotten into her day clothes and had acquired her magic staff thing that fired those boulders. Discretion was not the Child of Earth's strong suit, which got Yellow thinking as she analyzed Mesa's clothing.

"Something you've got to say?" Mesa asked with a raised brow. Yellow looked her in the eyes, undeterred by the earth girl's strong tone.

"Yeah. If anybody watched me enter town, they saw you too. If you're coming along, you should probably either follow from a distance, or change clothing."

"Good plan." Mesa agreed quickly, her expression as serious as ever. "I can cause more devastation from long range anyways. Besides, if I decide to blow up the ground where I'm standing to blast everything you'd be better off a hundred meters away."

"Very true." Yellow nodded. She looked around once more, satisfied that she was ready. "Let's go see the other gym leaders."

Mesa turned, seeing the others still looking awkward. "I'm sure you all can find something to do with your time," she told them. "You pokemon are in charge of Riley today."

Amber acquired a smirk at that phrasing.

Receiving no arguments, Mesa then turned to Yellow, taking charge. "I'll keep you within sight," she stated. "I will go first for a moment and stop when convenient, allowing you to pass me."

"Sounds like a decent plan." Yellow agreed without a moment's hesitation. Really, she just wanted to get this over with. She was on great terms with the other gym leaders, but today… There was too much stress, and she was forced to leave her rather troubled friend to fend for himself, and his track record stated that him getting into trouble while she was gone was a legitimately real possibility, but the meeting would help them all understand the state of the rest of the region, learn any information they could about the regions beyond, and… Anything else to do with the protection of the people.

There was a distinct pause Yellow gave at the door as she remembered the last time she left Riley to fend for himself. He'd almost gotten himself killed many, many times, and had what might be PTSD and was generally in trouble now as a result. She would be back by the end of the day, she knew it. But in that single pause, she realized that this was exactly the same as before. Riley was worried about her protection, and she was leaving him alone where he couldn't do anything if she was in danger.

Then, as she was about to turn around and say something, Mesa entered her field of view, gripping her arm and sort of hauling her out the door.

"What are you doing?" Yellow hissed.

"You're freaking out. I can see it on your face. Calm down." Mesa ordered.

Yellow didn't have time for this. "Sometimes I don't get you." she shot back. "What's with all the flip-flopping?"

"You're talking out of anger, Yellow, we've established why." Mesa pointed out, clasping my shoulder with her strong hand as she closed the door. Riley had clearly heard all of that exchange too, which served to frustrate her more.

"Yeah, I know," she said, her voice still betraying her stress and anger. "I'm not sure I care. To Riley, this is exactly what happened when I ditched him in Cerulean City."

"And to you, it's your job. So be a woman and get that job done. Riley knows I'll be here to protect you, and he's getting a smidge of an inferiority complex after I've invaded you lot's little lifestyle, so even if he's got problems with you leaving, he'll beat himself up more than he gets mad at you." Mesa reasoned harshly, starting to walk down the hotel hall with her hand still attached to my shoulder. Now Riley was probably out of earshot.

"..." Yellow let my head hang a bit as she followed Mesa half-willingly. Just because she didn't have much of a choice didn't make it right. Regardless… "You're right of course," she responded, picking up her pace. "You go on ahead, like you planned to do."

Mesa let go of Yellow's shoulder and strode ahead now, disappearing around the corner while she stalled.

" _Man, I don't feel good,"_ Yellow muttered in her head. Then, she slowly started walking forward again.

She was fourteen feet out the door when she realized that she hadn't eaten any breakfast, and neither had Mesa. She wondered if the earth girl had noticed at all. Did she have a weird metabolism or something that kept her going? Well, Yellow knew she herself forgot about food because of all the stress. Too late now, she figured.

She barely glanced at Mesa, a rather imposing figure in her cloak with her staff in hand facing a fountain in an almost dainty outdoor mall area as she walked by, making sure not to blow the whole idea of Mesa's presence not having an obvious purpose.

It made it easier when mumbles around her caught her attention. In her old clothes, she was known as Yellow. In this getup, she was clearly someone important, as these people seemed to figure. She was wearing something rather extravagant, after all.

She passed Mesa and didn't look back, continuing to walk quietly through towards the forest north of Celadon.

Mesa finished what she was surreptitiously doing and followed after her.

* * *

Riley was lying on the bed now, on his back. Kurenai, Amber, and Scarlet were around him on the bed, resting. Kazekai had chosen to claim Yellow's bed all for himself while Gauge seemed content to keep his position in the corner where his vision could reach out the window and at the front door.

"...I literally have nothing to do." Riley commented, ending the long, arduous silence that had plagued the room. It had been peaceful, for the most part, but what would Yellow say or feel if she found out Riley'd just sulked in the hotel room all day.

"Breakfast sounds nice." Amber supplied cheerfully as her stomach growled. "Y'know, before your angst causes me to starve."

"Rude…" Kurenai muttered, but Riley sat up.

"Food it is." he agreed without hesitating in the least, hopping off the bed as the pokemon all took notice of his actions with the notable exception of Kazekai, who was napping. Kurenai went to her brother as the other three got themselves ready to go.

Riley dressed quickly, snatching his staff off its spot and securing it before he started to head out.

"Card key," Kurenai called.

"Uh? Oh." Riley responded sheepishly, turning around and looking for his card that would open his hotel door in case he had to get back. Whether he knew how to use it, in Amber's opinion, was the big question. And oh, she wanted to witness another hilarious failure.

Riley shut the door once all of the pokemon had filed out, seeing the light go red right away, signaling that it was locked. Then, he led the group with Amber and Scarlet bounding to his shoulders and the rest padding along behind him.

The receptionist flinched at the sight of two absols and a winged luxray leisurely (mostly) walking into the main lobby, but calmed himself and greeted them warmly. No sense in worry. After all, this was the kid that was with Yellow. Surely he could control his pokemon.

Amber's ears twitched, somehow sensing an inside joke, and was compelled to smirk at the receptionist.

Said receptionist leaned back a bit, unnerved. Could eevees have psychic powers?

Breakfast was quick, as Riley wasn't in the mood to savor anything, and aside from Kurenai, everyone else ate their meals with gusto. Kurenai herself ate at a moderate pace, but struggled not to feel compelled to eat faster with everyone else waiting for her to finish.

"It's rude to stare, guys," Kurenai commented quietly, glancing up from her food. She appreciated that Gauge had the decency to be patient. Riley wasn't impatient with her, he was just still jittery, keeping an eye on the entrances to the room.

"Sorry." her brother apologized, blinking and disconnecting eye contact. It was hard not to, for him. After all, anybody who looked too hard at his eyes and knew their stuff could get the wrong idea. Kurenai wished he'd stop that. Maybe he'd forgotten that he didn't have to do that with her. Maybe it was in some kind of shame for the things he undoubtedly did while under the effects of the dark ball. Whatever this was, Kurenai had been under the impression that **they had already fixed it**.

She elected to confront him about it in the afternoon, in case this was a habitual action and didn't continue between now and then.

Breakfast finished, the group collectively wandered out of the building. It was a beautiful day. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming…

"On days like these, kids like us need ice cream!" Amber exclaimed,

"We had ice cream yesterday," Kurenai commented. "But…"

"This day still calls for it." Kazekai put in.

"I was going to say that exactly." Kurenai supplied, smiling and meeting eye contact with her brother. He didn't look away this time. Perhaps it simply had been a problem with habit.

Riley took initiative and set off, the crowd of pokemon trailing after him eagerly.

Gauge joined Riley in keeping an eye on every alley they passed, and every potentially suspicious thing they saw.

Kurenai wanted to say something, **anything** to get them to stop, but she didn't know if the two boys would ever really respond to her. Both of them were scarred, physically, and with Gauge, emotionally. She didn't know if Riley's issues counted as emotional damage. Severe paranoia and probably post-traumatic stress disorder. Her brother had his own emotional damage, and she hadn't inspected underneath his thick fur for scars yet. The nick in his horn had grown back by now, leaving his horn complete. He would probably say the marks on his eyes counted as scars.

Kurenai didn't know what to think when she realized it was Kazekai who worried her the most at the moment. After all, she couldn't tell whether or not he had forgiven himself, and so the jokes he used could really mean anything. She knew her brother less than she knew Riley or Gauge now.

As they approached the place they had been in just yesterday, Kurenai decided something had to be done. She nudged Kazekai, bringing his attention to her. "I'd like to talk to you," she told him.

His expression was legitimately unreadable, but Kurenai still turned to Riley. "Hey, Riley. We'll be just around the corner for a minute," she told him with conviction. The boy reacted almost instantly with a muttered 'stay near me' as he approached the building.

" **Riley**." Kurenai wasn't having it. She didn't like acting assertive, but right now she had to ease her own worries. The boy stiffened at her tone, and turned to face her with a confused expression. She hadn't even realized that Riley'd held a stony, serious face for the entire trip, but noticed now that it was broken. "You can't ever get over your paranoia if you don't trust people. You can trust me to be safe."

There was a long pause as Amber muttered in the background about the ice cream delay. Riley absorbed Kurenai's words. She had made a pretty quick switch to her serious voice. She hadn't used that before unless she really needed to. What did she think she was being forced to do?

She'd asked him to trust her. If he was being honest with himself, she was probably the most responsible one in the group. So, realizing that she meant what she said. So he nodded, quieting down. He didn't trust himself to say anything in particular.

Kazekai felt confused as he followed his younger sister around the corner into the alley. She was acting strange, and he wanted to know why. "What's up?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"You were acting strange this morning, Kazekai." her voice had turned to the soft tones she always used. "I'm worried."

" _Oh."_ Kazekai thought, trying to laugh it off. "I'm fine, sis! Don't worry about me." he tried to assure her, but he trailed off. The look in Kurenai's eyes said it all; She still thought something was wrong. She watched him for a minute until he got uncomfortable and had to keep talking. "...Yeah. I'm never going to feel comfortable making eye contact. That's just not gonna change." he slowly confided in her. "I'd known I wasn't at fault for the things I did, and I know I can't magically make them not happen. I'm not going to fall into some depression, Kurenai, I promise you."

He saw her relax, and gave himself a mental pat on the back. He hadn't needed to lie to do so either. "So I guess…" Kurenai murmured "It's just about the eyes."

Kazekai nodded calmly, glad she understood. "Yeah. No matter whether I forgive myself or not, anybody can get the wrong idea with one look at me. They might not if I don't look them in the eyes."

Kurenai remembered his words that that wasn't going to change. She let her eyes droop a bit as she set a paw on her brother's shoulder. "You have a lot of people you can trust around you, Kazekai. We're always going to protect you, no matter what. You shouldn't have to be afraid of what people think of you."

He winced. "But they won't be able to look past it," he argued. "I want people to see me for me."

She gave him a soft expression, massaging his shoulder with her paw to try and comfort him. "Brother… If someone can't see you for who you are just because your eyes look different… They're not worth the time to try and impress, Kazekai."

Kazekai didn't expect that from Kurenai. Maybe she had been affected by the things happening around her as well. Or maybe this was her inner monologue, that she would sometimes open up about. He realized with a sort of sinking feeling that there was a whole side to Kurenai that nobody really understood, and maybe they couldn't. She just wanted to be peaceful, kind, and the best she could be without ever resorting to violence. But every once in a while, Kazekai caught a glimpse of a girl with something else on her mind. Not different, necessarily, but still seeming to carry a weight heavier than expected. Who did she feel responsible for? Who did she feel was responsible for her?

" _Maybe now would be a good time to ask her…"_ Kazekai asked, ready to change the topic on her. But as he began the first word, Kurenai put the paw she was rubbing his shoulder with to comfort him to his mouth.

"Please don't change the subject on me. That's rude." Kurenai told him softly.

Kazekai wondered how she'd known that, too, but she had effectively brought his focus back to the question at hand, thinking back to her words even as she put her paw back on the ground. But he distracted himself with her words previous.

"I know… You're right that I shouldn't be trying to impress them, but… It can still put me in danger… Or Riley, because he's technically our trainer." Kazekai commented.

At this, Kurenai smiled. "Anyone tries to take you away has to get through Riley, Gauge, and me first, and then Amber and Scarlet if it gets down to that. And that's if they tried to take you away right now. If we're not separated, you've got Yellow, Ratty, Kitty, Dody, Omny, Gravvy, Chuchu, and Mesa herself."

Kazekai's arguments started dying in his throat as Kurenai listed his allies, and she looked him in the eyes the whole time, especially right at the end of her speech: "...As long as you stay with us… You can't be touched."

And not a word he could come up with he would say to argue with her. Because he knew she was right. He found himself relaxing a bit, and Kurenai seemed to sense this shift, as she took a step back and sat down.

"...I don't understand you." Kazekai said after a moment of silence.

She just nodded quietly.

He tightened his lips. "Kurenai… I don't understand why you act the way you do. It's like you're… Weighed down, but I can't tell what."

Kurenai looked down at her paws in silence for a bit.

"Why do you act different ways at different times?" Kazekai pressed.

"Kazekai…: she muttered hesitantly. "Do you realize that I'm the strongest pokemon in our group?"

There was quiet for a minute as Kazekai absorbed this for real. It was probably true, he realized. Kurenai had wrecked him **badly** when he was attacking her, much to his later joy. He briefly considered Gauge, but he couldn't be sure. And Kurenai was telling him up and front that she was, in fact, more powerful than Gauge. She'd clearly specified 'pokemon', meaning she had intentionally neglected to rank herself against Riley and Mesa.

"Granted…" Kurenai traced a claw across a stone brick absently, still looking down. "Yellow returned to the group, and she could match up to the likes of Red or Blue when doing her best. I don't know if I'm more powerful than her pokemon for sure, but…"

"I'm not sure I get what you mean when you say that," Kazekai admitted.

Kurenai looked him in the eyes. "Who am I responsible for? Who is responsible for me? What should I be protecting?"

She waited for her brother to say something, but he didn't. So she continued: "I hate fighting," she began again, the word 'hate' startling Kazekai, coming from his sister of all people. "I want to avoid it as much as possible. I want to be who I act like, and mostly feel like. I want to be the girl that's kind to everyone, respects them, and…" she trailed off a bit miserably "And when I do fight… It's like all the emotions I feel just go away. Whenever I attack, whether I'm holding back or not… I feel... Empty. Like… Like a soldier…"

Kurenai wanted to continue, but found she couldn't. Saying it out loud was simultaneously relieving and excruciating. She actively avoided talking about emotions now to continue. "I don't want to fight, but I can't help protect people without fighting. I… I have to be two people at once-"

Kazekai hugged her. She'd heard him approaching, but she stopped speaking, letting him hold his head to hers on one side and wrap his opposite foreleg around her neck.

"You're not a soldier." his voice was surprisingly stern. "I was a soldier once. A rage filled one. Riley is starting to act like a soldier. **You** are not a soldier. You won't ever be a soldier."

"Kazekai…" she whispered.

"You aren't two people at once." Kazekai continued in that same tone. "You're just a little conflicted. And it happens to everyone. Life's tough now. That's not gonna change. I can't tell you what to do. There's good things and bad things about everything you do. There's a lot we're gonna have to live with no matter what we do. I'm sorry you have to ask that question at all."

" _What happened to the Kazekai of the past few days? Bad jokes, including puns…"_ Kurenai wondered. " _Suddenly he's incredibly serious. Is it me? Am I doing this to him, because I'm his sister? Probably…"_

"But you want me to believe that nobody is going to judge me for my eyes," Kazekai told her, pulling back. "I guess I don't have to tell you that nobody is going to judge you for what you choose."

"Nobody but myself." Kurenai pointed out wearily.

Both Kurenai and Kazekai were able to reach the conclusion at the same time, and saw it in each other's eyes. If Kurenai judged herself based on a decision with consequences for how she runs her life, there was no way right now that her decision would not make her upset.

So, Kurenai realized, she would have to make **some** decision. And she had to make it eventually.

"Hey, there's an absol!"

The two turned, looking into the plaza they were on the edge of. Some kids were staring at them.

"What're they?"

"Mom says they can cause disasters!"

" _Kids…"_ Kazekai muttered in his head.

"Cool!" another kid replied enthusiastically, predictably bringing out a pokeball.

" _Kids…"_ Kurenai muttered in her head.

Kazekai prepared to defend himself, but Kurenai stopped him with a paw as they sent out a farfetched. "Don't, brother. Wait until they throw a pokeball. It won't work, and they'll leave us alone after that.

Kazekai took her advice, letting the wind he had been causing to pick up die down. The kids had no idea how to deal with battles, and someone hurled a pokeball at Kurenai. The kid missed, but the second one sank into her chest fur and fell to the ground. It covered the absol with its red energy, followed by that energy failing to pull her in.

"What the!?" one of the kids asked.

"Dummy, They're someone else's!" another one called back, and Kurenai kicked the pokeballs, sending them rolling back to the humans, who took the time to pick them up and split.

"That really worked." Kazekai marveled. "You're good at this. Really good."

"Thank you, brother." Kurenai sounded much more relaxed.

"Ready for some ice cream?" Kazekai asked her, using his paw to turn her around as he led her around the corner to where the others were patiently waiting.

"Yes please." Kurenai smiled, feeling lighter already.

* * *

Yellow slipped into a clearing, all of her pokemon following her through the brush. She'd walked for about twenty minutes into the forest north of Celadon, her pokemon by her side. She wasn't taking any chances. After everything that has happened, it's no surprise that she was getting a little paranoid herself.

But that was only why she was looking into every shadow as she walked. The silent stalker lookalike of Riley would be downright creepy in a setting like a forest somewhat cut off from the sun at the base of the trees.

It was her pokemon's paranoia that convinced her to let them stand guard as well.

But the clearing drove all those worries away. After all, she was old friends with most of the people there.

"Yellow, it's been a while."

"Gardenia." Yellow nodded with a smile at her friend. "It has been a while, indeed. How is your gym doing?"

She rolled her eyes. "The old man that peeks in our window always manages to escape before we can identify him," she responded, sounding a little annoyed.

Yellow winced. "Hasn't that guy been around since Red started his little campaign to literally be the best ever?"

She smiled at the memory of the quiet friend that every one of them shared. "Oh yes. And long before that, too. I'm starting to wonder if it's a ghost type disguising itself by shapeshifting, or if it's a zoroark pulling pranks."

Yellow looked about at the rest of the gym leaders. They all shared that sad smile at the mention of Red, but it would fade soon. They had a lot to discuss.

"I guess we should start with Gold." this from Sabrina, who lounged on a rock at the edge of the clearing. "Apparently he's causing a lot of trouble over in Johto."

"Because of course he is," commented Misty irritably. "What if he crosses over into Kanto again?"

"That typhlosion of his is gonna kill us all if we let it." Lieutenant Surge said matter of factly. "Somebody put a psycho typhlosion with a kid that may be troubled himself."

An old man stepped forward, reminding Yellow that Blaine was still kicking, thankfully. "I've spoken with Jasmine of Olivine." he started. She was probably the most mobile of the Johto gym leaders, taking trips to Sinnoh and Kanto and occasionally Hoenn, as far as Yellow knew. Probably more. "It's proving extremely difficult for their police force to handle one typhlosion."

" _That's a powerful typhlosion…"_ Yellow thought to herself. "What is changing with that typhlosion, by the way?"

"Apparently it's spending slightly less time pulling goddamn MAC-10s out of thin air and is now occasionally using thunder punch." Sabrina deadpanned.

"Is there any chance he shows up in Kanto?" Yellow asked.

"Not if the authorities have anything to say about it, but something tells me there's going to be some violence. They can't even get close enough to get rid of the firearms." Koga said behind Yellow. But, his pokemon had been with him, so she'd felt him coming. A ninja couldn't sneak up on her with pokemon in tow.

"Great... " Yellow muttered sarcastically, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger.

"What's the situation in Lavender Town?" she heard, her attention drawn to Brock. "We had a ghost sighting in Pewter."

Sabrina opened her mouth to answer, but Yellow piped up. "A friend of mine wound up destroying some weird thing called the House of Horror," she said. "It was a little while back, but not too long ago."

Sabrina frowned at Yellow. "I never heard that," she commented. "Why did nobody tell me?"

"You knew it existed?" L.T. Surge asked, raising a brow at her. Not much fazed that man, but he got curious quick.

"Yes, I did," Sabrina admitted. "But I don't think that would have had anything to do with it. Brock, what form did the ghost take?"

"It was a boy." the rock type gym leader responded, looking thoughtful. "He was a little pale, and all his features like hair and eyes and clothes, they were silver."

Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "A **little** pale?" she asked.

"As in, he could have actually been alive?" Yellow asked.

"My reports say he was floating on his own," Brock added.

Yellow thought back. Apparently, there were these 'guardian' characters that would pop up on occasion. Recently, they seemed to have at least some impact on everyone's lives… Everyone but her own.

"Is it possible that it wasn't a ghost, but something else?" she asked.

She attracted the attention of the other six people in the clearing, while in the corner of her eye, she watched Brock setting up stuff to provide food for everyone, paying attention but not particularly shocked that something was not as it seemed. She distantly remembered that the man had traveled the world some years back, for several years, before resuming his position as the Pewter Gym leader. And he was a damn good cook, too.

Hearing no words to acknowledge her statement but not to ignore it either, she continued: "My friend, Riley Oras, met a girl named, uh… Alex." she recalled. "Said she was a 'guardian', and Xerneas was afraid of her, even though Alex was acting nice, and definitely had no malicious intent. She was human, though. And it's pretty clear that there's multiple of them. Could it have been one of these guys?"

Everyone considered the notion. "It's possible," Sabrina spoke up yet again. "Though I would ask, what are they guarding? Why appear now? What do the rest of them look like? It's a possibility, Yellow, but I wouldn't bank on it without more evidence."

Yellow nodded in understanding, turning to the rest for input, but they seemed to be thinking about the same thing.

"It doesn't resemble a ghost, though." This from Blaine again, "It being completely unidentified gives some weight to Yellow's inference."

"Very true." Erika closed her eyes, letting her clothes billow in the wind.

"I had our very own Officer Jenny look people up with any description like that. She got some kid in Johto that's way too young to be this guy." Brock looked up from the food he was preparing on site.

Yellow frowned. **That** was weird.

Misty spoke up. "I've seen folks with white hair," she commented. "I don't know if I've met anybody with silver hair though."

"Sorry to interrupt," Sabrina called out. "Brock, what exactly did this thing do?"

"Uh…" he rubbed the back of his head. "Basically nothing. He floated around, greeted some people, and smiled a lot. Then he left."

There was a pause after that, the group of gym leaders feeling rather underwhelmed by this lack of action. If it was one of these guardian people, Yellow thought, why are they seemingly doing nothing when the region is getting in a greater state of chaos? Unless they were in danger of being caught in pokeballs, like legendary pokemon are, they'd have no real reason not to interfere, right? Unless they either didn't have the ability, or they had the ability but it was somehow too dangerous… But which was it?

"...I don't think we're gonna get anywhere with random theories and no evidence." Koga spoke up.

"He's right." L.T. Surge responded, nodding. "Team X… We're calling them team X, right?"

Misty nodded. "Yeah, since they don't spout their name everywhere and they've all got an 'X' on their uniforms." she reasoned.

"Nobody would take them seriously. Maybe less seriously than is safe." Sabrina commented, drawing some nods from the group. With a name as cliche as 'team X', they weren't exactly striking fear.

"That's the point." Yellow declared.

"Definitely." Misty agreed. "They don't want to make us afraid, they want us to ignore them. What exactly are they planning?"

* * *

A cloaked sylveon stood looking down at a city, her platform a large floating card. She had a tense expression as she tried to find people who could help, namely the godchildren or Yellow or… Anyone. Celadon was a big place, and she was having trouble finding them.

Deciding not to waste any more time, Tricky pulled out an intricate white and gold card, much like the one she had given to Riley's group. "Don't you have left this in your hotel room…"

* * *

Pistachio ice cream is a thing? Really?" Amber asked in wonder as she saw Riley trying to contain his love of the food so that he could try and savor it.

"Yeah!" Riley seemed much happier, all things considered. Ice cream could do that to a person. Kurenai would have commented, but she was too busy burying her face in her own ice cream bowl, devouring the wonderful cold treat with gusto.

Gauge reluctantly licked at his own ice cream. It tasted good, he couldn't deny that, but habit compelled him to do anything else, to not be seen doing anything other than being by himself and not to be interrupted. Soon, though, he was distracted by Kurenai coming up for air, the girl having some ice cream on her cheek. She, of course, noticed the winged luxray looking at her. "What's up, Gauge?" she asked.

Gauge grew somewhat self-conscious of the attention this brought him from the others, but he didn't break eye contact with the absol, and he gestured to his cheek with his paw.

"What?" she asked.

Gauge sighed. "You've got…" he gestured to his cheek again.

Kurenai brought her paw to her corresponding cheek and rubbed it a bit, looking at her paw afterward. "Oh, thanks," she replied, licking the ice cream off her paw, before freezing. She promptly sat straight and proper. "Sorry, I'm being rude."

Everyone smiled at her, except for Gauge, who didn't make a habit of smiling. Kurenai looked back at Gauge, who now avoided her gaze in favor of continuing to eat the ice cream slowly. " _Oh, how I wish I could hear your thoughts."_ she thought to herself. " _It would be so much easier to understand you, but… That wouldn't be kind of me, to just listen in. It would be rude, too."_

One second later, Kurenai wished her danger senses alerted her to the shenanigans of matchmaking-crazy people, so she could have stopped Amber from saying "Man, I thought big guy was gonna ask for a kiss or something."

Gauge gave Amber an incredulous look, and the two received a laugh from the rest of the group, while Kurenai reflexively shrank a bit, lowering her head and focusing back on her ice cream out of embarrassment.

Riley's smile persisted for a bit, but something kicked in. He couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. His instincts screamed that there was something coming, but he knew it couldn't be real. It had to be paranoia and an awful lot of nearly dying talking. But still it nagged at him. " _Stop paying attention for one second, and somebody dies…"_ the scarred part of him whispered in his thoughts.

Thankfully, he had Gauge, who had X-ray vision, keen ears, and normal eyesight, and… Did cats have a good sense of smell?

So perhaps he could relax just a little bit… If he could.

Riley found himself taking another spoonful of ice cream despite his worries. He was glad there was a pistachio flavour.

That, of course, is when the music started. It was relatively pleasant. Problem was, it was loud. And it came from Riley's backpack right next to him. He panicked instantly, toppling his chair and rattling his bowl as his staff flew out in his hand and he stood in a battle stance, startling everyone nearby, looking about for the threat and not immediately registering where the sound was coming from.

"The backpack, Riley." Amber deadpanned. She didn't expect him to whirl as if the pack itself was the enemy, though, which he did for a moment as he was on guard, stiff, but cursing himself as he felt a sort of exhaustion at the same time.

Then Scarlet spoke up.

"Riley, calm down, you're scaring me."

Riley shut down immediately, lowering the weapon. "...Thanks, Scarlet…" He murmured quietly, sinking back into his chair and setting his staff against the ground and supporting his weight with his hand on the other end. "I'm sorry…"

"What's causing that noise?" Amber asked.

Riley opened the bag with his open hand, unzipping it and starting to dig into it. Finally, he yanked the offending object out, revealing a card that was mostly white with gold marks around the perimeter in an odd pattern, but one of the open spaces on it, the one in the middle, was emitting a glow, and the music. "Uh…" He muttered.

"That's the card Tricky gave me." Gauge muttered, starting to eat faster, figuring he might not get to finish the food otherwise.

"...How do I use it?" Riley's expression turned serious.

"By wanting to." Riley jumped as the sylveon's voice emitted from the card. "Good thing you kept this thing around and didn't leave it in your hotel."

"You scared the shit out of me," Riley told her. "What's going on?"

"I've got something to tell you," Tricky said, sounding rushed.

Riley paused, glancing at Kurenai. The absol had noticed what he had. "Tricky… Right?"

"Yeah."

He frowned. "Why are you talking so differently?" he demanded in a flat voice.

"...Right. I'll explain that in a bit." Tricky muttered but was swiftly interrupted.

"Explain now," Riley ordered, wondering if this was actually Tricky. She'd been super formal when they last talked to her, after all.

"The bloody **planet's** going to get ripped apart, and you're worried about my speech patterns?" came the exasperated reply.

There was a long pause. "I'm listening." Riley nodded.

* * *

"We need to fight this group as soon as possible." Sabrina said with a tone that demanded no argument.

"If we have to drag the other regions into promising to keep an eye out of them, we should." L.T. Surge agreed.

Erika stepped forward, looking between the two. "Whether they know it or not, Team Rocket is taking a lot of our time and resources to keep down. Do we have that kind of strength?"

The two other gym leaders fell silent, thinking.

" _God, I wish it was Blue instead of me here right now, he's way better at this…"_ Yellow thought to herself, grimacing. "Could we maybe ask for resources from other regions?"

"Cynthia would help in a heartbeat if she has any to spare," Brock spoke up as he started setting plates out. "She's that kind of person, and since they kicked Team Galactic to the curb for good, they probably have a lot to spare."

Misty nodded. "Good call, Brock." She complemented him. "I'm actually surprised Cynthia hasn't noticed all this before us and sent help already."

"Now that she's bogged down with trainers failing to take her spot, she hasn't gotten to travel much." Koga's words rang true.

"I've seen a few of her fights." L.T. Surge spoke up, his train of thought derailing to something else as he smirks. "She's as ruthless a battler as she is a great person. I'm not the only guy that saw her stomp the kid that beat Team Galactic, right?"

"No holds barred in a champion's battle." Brock nodded. "Food's up, everybody!"

The conversation hit a dead stop as everyone went for Brock's cooking. The end of the world could be put on hold for that cooking.

"Oh, this is **gorgeous**." Yellow proclaimed after she'd swallowed the first bite.

General consensus came around, but still they ate quickly. Yellow thought for a moment that perhaps the tension she was feeling was being felt by the others too; They did know she was in danger. They wondered if they were in danger themselves, and were concerned about each other as well as her.

"We need to talk about what these guys are targeting." Yellow announced.

* * *

"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Riley said.

"What do you mean?" was the response he got, and he frowned.

"The first time I dealt with them, they were experimenting on pokemon." he elaborated.

"Unless evil turquoise-eyed you works for them," Amber commented idly.

"The power plant, right?" he heard, and nodded, before remembering that this seemed to be audio only.

"Yeah."

Up in the sky still, Tricky absently glanced in the general direction of the power plant, miles away. "Remember what I said about them taking control of pokemon?" she inquired.

"Yeah."

"They had a time that they wanted to do **everything**. So, what would happen if they couldn't get ahold of the tools they needed? Abandon it? Not if they had alternatives." Tricky reasoned.

"You said they would use my pokedex to turn pokemon against the world. What does that mean?" Riley asked.

Tricky almost asked if he knew what it does to lead up to her point, but she stopped herself and decided to just make it. "The pokedex can take data on things like each pokemon species' brainwave patterns among everything else. They get that data, they could use it. Control pokemon of any species the pokedex has."

"That sounds scary…" Scarlet murmured.

"It is scary," Riley replied quietly. "What exactly am I supposed to do?"

"Help me tell everyone." Tricky requested. Well, it didn't sound like a request, but she meant it as a request. She supposed she was getting stressed out. "Even if I figured out a way to send some sort of viral message, I'd either make everyone panic or be ignored. You've got police contacts, and with something this big, they'll tell gym leaders, they'll tell the champion and the elite four, and the news of the danger will spread."

"Put the world on red alert. Sounds like a start." Riley muttered. "What are you going to do?"

"Find Angelica, hope she doesn't prank me, and see if I can get her to do something useful." Riley heard a sigh from the other end. "She's difficult. And random, so that'll be **my** full-time job for a while…"

"Random," Riley muttered. "Speaking of, why with the total change in how you talk?"

"It's complicated. Really, really complicated." Tricky told him promptly.

"...Right…" Riley deadpanned. "Maybe in a second, it'll dawn on you that I'm really freaking paranoid right now."

Tricky paused. She'd been around long enough to recognize when someone was stressed out. "...Alright. Sitting comfortably?"

"No, I'm not." Riley realized he was still out of his seat, with people walking by. They didn't give him a passing glance. Maybe they thought the card was some fancy phone or something.

"...Alright. There are a lot of reasons why I'm probably not gonna be super consistent." Tricky started explaining. "The first is Angelica. I'm connected to her, so magic in general heals me, but that also means I have a lot of close contact with her. And she's difficult. She'll pull pranks using transformation spells in a heartbeat if it occurs to her. And how people behave around her tends to affect that. It's extremely complicated, but changing how I act is pretty normal for me, especially if I see a chance to talk her down. What happened the last time we met was… Well, I'd been under the demon's control for some time, and I know I've done some things because of that. I don't know if that's enough to explain it, but that's the summary."

Riley took this in, nodding every once in a while. "This Angelica person. She's, what, one of those guardian people?"

"Yes." came the reply. "She is."

"Question. Why the fuck hasn't she dealt with all of this herself?" Riley suddenly asked, annoyance evident in his voice.

"A few reasons." Tricky responded calmly. "For one, the Guardian of Darkness and some of the other guardians seriously advise against any involvement, because mistakes basically mean the end of whatever universe they're in." Riley grimaced, but kept listening. "Second, she's **probably** going to get involved anyways. Problem is that I have literally no idea what exactly she's going to do; She's too unpredictable."

"What about you?" Riley asked suddenly. "If you've got this all powerful person that hangs out with you, why were you with Dizzy?"

 **Now** tricky sounded annoyed. "I'm an adult, Riley, I'm supposed to take care of myself. But to answer your question, the guardians aren't immune to that control effect."

Riley blanched.

"Well, they are…"

Riley calmed.

"Sort of."

Riley couldn't take it anymore. "Get to the point!"

"Their energy would provide feedback to Dizzy. But their feedback would be infinite. Dizzy would be destroyed in a heartbeat, but… That's more than enough time for Dizzy to make them blow up the universe. One moment. And it worries them, because according to Makenna, this is the first time they've seen something quite like it that could actually affect them."

Riley let out a long, long breath. "So…" He started, unsure where to go from here.

"Police." Tricky finished. Then Riley heard her sigh. "Sorry… I shouldn't be so harsh. It was a little hard to hear you imply my friends would abandon me."

Riley nodded slowly, calming down even more. "I'm sorry, too." he apologized. "Um… Where are you?"

"Floating above the city on a giant card colored like a flying carpet."

Amber, Kazekai, and Scarlet snorted. "Of course she is," Amber grunted, trying not to laugh.

"Have fun on your flying Cardpet," Kazekai called, eliciting groans from everyone, Tricky included.

Riley had an awkward expression after the confusing and somewhat frightening conversation. But, Tricky was being helpful, and she sounded stressed too. "Hey, Tricky. Do you want some ice cream before we deal with the possible destruction of the world?"

"...Ice cream?"

Riley couldn't help but grin.

* * *

"Then why are they after you?" Misty asked Yellow after they finished discussing the power plant and some other sightings of the group. So far, the power plant was the only identified base location. Other events seemed to be field efforts.

"No idea," Yellow admitted. "But they care enough to send somebody who looks just like my best friend… Almost… to kill me."

"What do you have that nobody else has?" Sabrina suddenly asked, looking right at me.

"Um… Healing, pretty much. You can read minds too." Yellow said.

"I can, but you can feel their emotions, and have a much greater connection to them. They aren't going to go to an extreme like that on the off chance that one girl can heal pokemon. Whatever they're doing, they're scared of you being able to read both thoughts and emotions."

Yellow looked between everyone. "Alright… But why? The only thing that pops into my head is mind control, but can it be that… Easy…" she trailed off, stiffening.

The psychic gym leader stood up, making eye contact with Yellow. "Judging by how you're actively being targeted, their proper goal is going to encompass Kanto at the **least.** "

" _Got it. It's bad."_ Yellow muttered in her head, before remembering Sabrina would receive every word. "So how are we going to handle the investigation?"

"If we send larger police patrols into the 'road less traveled', as it were, where humans usually don't go…" Surge began.

"We would be trespassing on, and perhaps destroying pokemon habitat." Erika cut him off seriously.

"They're probably hiding out there, waiting." Surge shot back.

"No ground troops. They probably have defenses anyways." Blaine commented idly from where he had begun helping Brock clean up after the meal.

"Anything from the air would set them on red alert instantly though, right?" Misty asked quickly, not wanting things to escalate out of control.

L.T. Surge instead got a thoughtful expression. "Yo, Sabrina," he called to the psychic. "What was that report we all got a couple months ago?"

"We get dozens of reports, Surge," Sabrina replied, cross.

He waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. The one from the Reborn region."

"Someone over there was ridiculous enough to make a spy plane when we aren't anywhere close to war." Sabrina nodded. "But that place has always been… Different."

" _No kidding."_ Yellow thought at the woman, who spared her a glance before turning to address the others.

It was Koga who stepped forward to speak next: "The politics surrounding that place are insane. I'm comfortable saying that there's no way we can borrow that thing without doing something we'll regret in the process."

"He's right." Brock and Erika said in unison.

"Why would they go and build something like that when tensions between the regions are literally at an all time low?" Misty asked.

"It's hard to tell," Sabrina admitted, sighing and rubbing her temples. "They don't like talking about their problems. But considering what we do have, they have their own criminal team making their lives hell."

"I don't think we can afford to send them aid until we know what our own problem group is doing, and it that happens to be something minor. Otherwise, our resources are stuck here."

Then Sabrina's eyes widened, and everyone was immediately on guard. Sabrina reached for a pokeball.

"Don't do it! A single hand on one pokeball and we will shoot!"

Yellow flinched as a crowd of members of Team Rocket flooded out of the shadows in the forest, toting machine guns and goddamn rocket launchers and a lot of other weapons.

"Put your hands in the air. Do **anything** , and we'll kill every last one of you." one of the grunts shouted.

"No funny business with psychic powers, we've got psychic pokemon that **will** notice!" shouted another.

Yellow slowly raised her hands, not willing to put her pokemon or her friends in danger. " _Mesa, where are you?"_ she asked desperately.

Sabrina overheard this and twitched, glancing at Yellow, uncertain as to what she meant.

Then a man stepped through the crowd and faced them directly, a smug look on his face and one of the ugliest haircuts they had ever seen. Team Rocket Admin Petrel. He drew his hand through his hair as if he was proud of it, and then put his hands on his hips. "Well, well, well…" he started.

" _This guy makes himself easy to hate."_ Sabrina's voice came to everyone psychically. It took all of Yellow's willpower not to snicker. The minds of the pokemon around her were whispering in her ears, and several of the psychics chose not to tell their owners about the psychic communication purely for the humor.

Then she detected a conversation. Well, half of it. Sabrina had singled out an uncomfortable looking kadabra, and had entered negotiations with it mentally. Yellow didn't catch any other psychics noticing, so she must have managed to isolate the conversation, as a psychic as immensely skilled as her could.

"Our demands are simple, you know. You give us all of your pokemon, and you come with us as hostages. One of you screws up, you all die, and nobody wants that. It would be such a waste." Petrel began to tell the group.

For their own protection, each of the gym leaders had brought all of their pokemon. That including Misty's togekiss and Brock's marshtomp, and their other powerful pokemon that didn't match up to their professed types.

If Team Rocket got ahold of forty-eight exceptionally powerful pokemon, they could become even more of a serious threat. But what scared Yellow and the rest of them the most was for Team Rocket to have a hope of controlling any of them, they would have to break their spirits.

"Well? I'm waiting." Petrel had some grunts come up to him with a box, meant simply to hold all of the pokeballs they had.

Nobody moved, nobody breathed. Not one of them was willing to abandon their pokemon to a horde of criminals. They would rather die right here than give six lives each.

"Prepare to fire," Petrel ordered suddenly, then addressing the gym leaders. "I hope you realize that if we kill you, we can just pick your pokeballs off your dead body."

"...Hold up." Misty's voice rang out. Petrel turned to her, waiting in case she did anything suspicious at all. "What's going on? Team Rocket hasn't been in the business of killing."

"Times change." Petrel's sneer grew. "Now, is this going to get messy?"

" _Mesa, we need-"_ Yellow started to think, but then thoughts reached her out of the blue. She smiled.

Mesa had gone into groudon mode.

The earth suddenly began to rumble, startling everyone. The rockets were a second too late with their bullets, because promptly, a hollow cylinder of compact earth rose around the gym leaders, making an immediate shield and hiding the group of Kanto elite from the view of the criminals.

"Everyone prepare for battle!" Surge commanded in a yell, and immediately, forty-eight extremely powerful pokemon rose to the challenge from their pokeballs. An instant army.

On the other side of the skywards tube, the rockets were panicking. Petrel was panicking. And a girl stepped up next to him, hiding her eyes in her rocket cap. She unveiled herself quickly, revealing her blue colored eyes. She ripped the cap from her head, equally blue colored hair pouring down to her shoulder blades. Her hair was messy, but she clearly didn't care.

"Who are you? Get back in line." Petrel snapped at her. "Who do you think you are!?"

"I told you not too long ago. You can't remember the name 'Mica'?" she asked snarkily. "Look, they'll have all of their pokemon out now. Keep guns trained to the skies where the fliers might leave, keep the rocket launchers pointed at the wall, make everyone keep their distance."

Petrel was taken aback. "You don't order me around, girl." he snapped.

She gave him an even look, and distinctly remembered that he hadn't even tried to be a leader once the plan had failed. She turned to the group. "Back up, all of you! Guns pointed to the sky where fliers can get out of the cylinder. Rocket launchers pointed at the wall, annihilate anything that breaks through. Move!"

Petrel watched in disbelief as the woman's authoritative voice rang out, and Team Rocket responded, taking the positions she'd ordered.

Sabrina held her hand out to stop the group from attacking. "Stalemate," she said. "Someone other than that despicable man is running the show now. Flying over won't work, neither will going straight out. I hope your friend can handle herself."  
"Who?" Surge asked.

"The groudon girl. The Child of Earth. Mesa." Sabrina elaborated. "I can sense her. I am relaying information about Team Rocket's position to her.

"I don't follow," Blaine admitted.

"Mesa was raised by Groudon. She has some of his powers." Yellow explained, nervously scratching behind Chuchu's ear. "She'll get us out."

The girl, 'Mica', had taken complete charge of the group of Rocket Grunts, much to Petrel's dismay. She had made it look so easy.

"You lot, on the outside of the crowd. Spread the word around the cylinder and all of you on the outside of the crowd keep your guns pointed outwards, away. If anything comes, I want bullets in it. Preferably nonlethal."

The word spread. 'Mica's orders were followed.

"I won't have this kind of mutiny!" she heard behind her, and the sound of a koffing popping out of its pokeball was heard. It unleashed a sludge bomb, but it didn't hit her. It made it halfway, and dripped uselessly off of a shedinja.

" **Shedinja**." the ghost pokemon struck the koffing with one shadow ball and defeated it. The girl had only two pokeballs, which meant only two to train.

"You won't get away with this." Petrel snarled as he unleashed a weezing, a muk, and an arbok. "Arbok, use poison tail on that shell!"

" _You really are clueless, aren't you."_ the girl thought. "Shedinja, if you would."

Shedinja tanked the attack, literally without a scratch. It then used shadow ball on the arbok without orders again, seriously weakening the pokemon before Petrel could think to have it use bite. One more shadow ball and it was unconscious.

She left Shedinja to deal with the man on its own and went back to keeping an eye out for things. She couldn't see what had caused the earth to erupt into the air like it had done, so she was very wary. Then again, she didn't need to win the day, though that would be nice. She just had to be better than Petrel.

She looked out, the silence starting to permeate the air. Then, something popped into her head.

" _If you fight us, we will wipe you off the face of the earth,"_ it said, and it definitely wasn't her voice. Someone was speaking to her via psychic link.

She turned and thought back: " _Says who?"_

" _Says the godchild to the west. You can surrender, or she can attack you in one minute."_ Sabrina shot at her.

" _One Godchild to the south of us, thank you~"_ she practically sang in her head. "You lot!" she shouted at a portion of the group "Go south and shoot down whatever you find."

She could hear the psychic, probably Sabrina, cursing with the mental link intact. " _Gotcha,"_ she whispered in her thoughts, teasingly, and then watched her forces run off.

Then the ground exploded. A tidal wave of earth rose out of the ground starting where the recently reassigned grunts were and traveling around the cylinder, sending every single rocket flying except for her, as she had leapt atop her Shedinja, who had floated out of reach.

Petrel ran away without the grunts. 'Mica' would not do that. "Fall back, everyone! I'm not losing anybody to a freaking legendary, whatever it is. Go, retreat to base, cover your tracks!"

The rockets ran away, and as the earth cylinder exploded and the gym leaders rushed to move the opposite direction, unwilling to put any guns to chance. Mesa landed from the air nearby them, satisfied with their work. Meanwhile, 'Mica' smiled at a job well done as she escaped to wrap up her own personal plan.

"Where the **heck** were you," Yellow grumbled as she returned her pokemon and dusted herself.

"I was making sure I had a feel for the landscape. Otherwise, that wall might have had a few more faults." Mesa explained cooly, even knowing Yellow was joking. "They ran away."

"The girl who is not who she says she is," Sabrina muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. "She had her own plot, and used that failure to her advantage. I feel like we will be seeing her again."

Surge stood up. "Who was she, then? I heard her shouting orders like a natural."

"She wisely did not take her proper identity into consideration, only her plot." Sabrina replied, and seeing everyone's expectant looks, she elaborated: "To gain a position of power in Team Rocket."

"I heard a shedinja," Misty added quietly, remembering her last experience with the horrifying (as she sees them) ghost bugs.

"Back to town, now. They won't come back for us in the middle of the city." Surge commanded, causing the group to spring into action. They prepared to evacuate the area as soon as possible.

* * *

Riley was trying hard not to laugh. "It's like you haven't had ice cream in a long time," he commented.

She mumbled something into her ice cream as she ate, unheard by the rest of the group entirely, perhaps an explanation of some sort. As she finished, she looked up promptly.

"How much about different universes do you know?" she asked, using a ribbon to pick up a napkin and, in a much more polite manner, clean up the mess.

Riley gave a helpless shrug. "Basically nothing."

"I'm from one." Tricky started, drawing any attention that wasn't on her right to her. "And to be clear, I am not talking about parallel universes. That is usually a term given to universes created in a different dimensional plane to a certain universe, and tends to have something to do with it. But I am talking about spatially differentiated universes, a proper multiverse. And the rules can drastically change from one to another. For example, where I come from, most fairy types have a natural craving for sugar… And in fact, our body structure demands more sugar than most living beings, so it's a legitimate part of my diet. I guess I just realized that I haven't had any since before I was… Enslaved."

"Right… Bad subject." Amber muttered. "So… I think **everyone** here's been traumatized by something. Literally."

"Um… I don't think I really count… People were just mean to me." Scarlet piped up.

"Aww, you're welcome here anyways." Riley gave a genuine smile as he scratched behind her ears. "You're a part of the family now. Even if the rest of us are… Kinda broken."

It was a little weird to them that many of them could pull a smile at that.

Riley set his bowl down harder than he intended.

 **Clank!**

He picked it back up again and checked for damage, but thankfully found none. He quickly gathered everyone's bowls and stood up, picking his chair up with his free hand and setting it down in its proper place closer to the table.

 **Clank!**

He turned to enter the building to give the bowls back, knowing they would clean them and use them again.

 **Clank!**

He took one step…

 **Clank!**

And stopped. Time seemed to slow down for Riley, the others seeing his pupils widen, and some, like Gauge and Kurenai, had registered the noise that had stalled the child of time.

 **Clank!**

Riley didn't turn around. He couldn't. Why now? Why here? Why, when he finally got to smile?

 **Clank!**

"All of you…" Riley said hoarsely. "Run… Get out of here. Now."

 **Clank!**

"We're not abandoning you again," Kurenai said.

"Never, ever again-" Amber started.

"We don't discuss this!" Riley shouted, startling everyone.

 **Clank!**

"Get away now. Run." He ordered desperately, turning to face the enigma.

 **Clank!**

 **Clank!**

 **Clank!**

* * *

 **Clank!**

 **Clank!**

 **Clank!**

 **Me: Jango, stop it with the pan, you're going to confuse the readers.**

 **Jango: (Grins) exactly.**

 **Me: (Sighs) Well, I should clear some things up. I won't clear up the end, that should be fairly clear. Though 'Mica' being worded in a way that implies it's not real, but a previous chapter should give plenty of information about who she actually is, her shedinja being the primary hint.**

 **I wasn't all too sure about this chapter, I was actually kind of worried. This part is the part of the story where the sequence gets a bit dicey, so I had to switch between focusing on different characters plenty of times. I hope I managed to make it a bit more enjoyable to experience by leading one scene to the next even if they weren't technically connected.**

 **And Tricky. She is a very complex character that's hard to explain using words, but I hope I did it justice.**

 **Anyways... Please review and tell me how you felt about the chapter, I would really appreciate knowing, given that this is one of the more challenging parts to write. Thank you all.**


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